High-Rent District : Ginza Replaces E. 57th as the World’s Costliest Place for Retail Space

Tokyo’s Ginza ousted New York’s East 57th Street as the most expensive in the world for retail rental rates in 1988, according to a new survey.

With rates for retail space soaring to $650 a square foot, Tokyo’s most famous shopping street moved to first place in 1988, topping a field that also included New York’s Fifth Avenue, Beverly Hills’ Rodeo Drive and London’s Bond Street, according to the Hirschfeld Cos., a New York retail real estate brokerage that compiled the annual survey.

The Ginza moved up from No. 2 in 1987, when its retail rates averaged a comparatively inexpensive $400 per square foot, said Michael Hirschfeld, chairman and chief executive of Hirschfeld Cos. Fifty-seventh Street, which dropped to second place at $435 per square foot last year, averaged $425 in 1987, he said.

Hirschfeld said retail rents on Fifth Avenue between 50th and 59th streets, which held third place in both the 1988 and 1987 surveys, held steady at $375 a foot last year.

Among the many stores that line the Ginza are Mikimoto, an international pearl company, and Mitsukoshi, a famous Tokyo department store, while 57th Street boasts such shops as Bonwit Teller and boutiques for French design firms Chanel and Hermes.

Hirschfeld attributed the Ginza’s rise to a combination of the strength of the Japanese currency and competition in Tokyo by the world’s retailers. “A lot of retailers have targeted it as a market that they want to get into,” he said.

Streets of Gold

Avg. Rent Per Street City Square Foot The Ginza Tokyo $650 E. 57th Street New York 435 Fifth Avenue* New York 375 Madison Avenue*** New York 335 Rodeo Drive Beverly Hills 225 Nathan Road Hong Kong 200 Bond Street London 180 Rue de Faubourg St. Honore Paris 175 Bloor Street Toronto 150 Lexington Avenue** New York 150

* 50th-59th streets *** 62nd-72nd streets ** 57th-60th streets

Source: Hirschfeld Cos.