Retail rates amoung the world's top 5

.....according to the commercial realtor NAI Global.

Vancouver, while it can't top the highest rents on New York's 57th Street, still ranked fifth in the world for expensive retail real estate with a $135 US-per-square-foot lease rate for top locations, including its renowned Robson Street.

Hong Kong ranks No. 1 in NAI Global's top 10 list with a $696 US-per-square-foot lease rate, Tokyo was second, charging an average rent of $209 US per square foot and Beijing was third with a lease rate of $183.

New York's Midtown Manhattan was the only United States location to crack NAI Global's top 10, and it ranked ninth with an average lease rate of $86.

Greg McPhie, director of NAI Goddard & Smith, NAI Global's Vancouver-based affiliate, compiled the data for Vancouver. He said it was an average of "high-street" fashion rates for Robson Street, where the highest rents are approaching $200 Cdn per square foot.

"I guess it speaks to our attractiveness as a city and all the dynamics that make our downtown exciting and attractive," McPhie said. "Vancouver, as a city, has done very well at developing, and is well known for that."

So high-profile fashion chains can justify paying high rents on Robson Street for the profile that it gives them, and McPhie guessed that some of the justification comes from the advertising value of just being there.

Robson is home to stores such as A/X Armani Exchange, Original Levi's, Club Monaco, Banana Republic, the Gap and Bebe. Cosmetics company Kiehl's has a location there, as does Pegabo Shoes and local fashion icon Aritzia.

"Some of those retailers have to be there," McPhie said. "They seem to want to be there for the tourists and the profile it gives them. They rationalize those rates, and rationalization goes on, because they're paying much lower [rents] in other parts of the city."

Boy's Co. is another local, three-store chain with a location on Robson. Boy's Co. president David Goldman said the company opened the Robson location in 1987, and said staying there is worth it despite ever-rising rents.

"The exposure alone is worth I don't know how many times its value in advertising simply because you get the numbers of people walking past your door," Goldman said.

Goldman added that all the major retailers who want to be in Vancouver want to be on Robson. He said these days "there's more wants-to-be" than there is space available in choice locations.

Shaadi Faris, a senior analyst for Colliers International, said it sounds a bit surprising to see Vancouver ranked so high on NAI Global's list, until he stops to think about recent developments.

Colliers' 2005 retail survey shows that Robson's top rents of $200 per square foot still do not approach the top rents on New York's 57th Street, where stores paid $950 US per square foot, or even Geary Street in San Francisco, where the highest lease rates topped $450 US.

However, Faris said Vancouver is becoming internationally recognized as a shopping destination, and "the big-name guys" are willing to pay high rents, even if they lose money, "just to be on Robson."

Kari Baker, a retail consultant with Sixth Line Solutions in Vancouver, said very few stores, especially the big brands, would lose money on Robson. She said those stores tend to have their sales formula "down to a science."

Robson, she added, has a reputation for carrying the same amount of pedestrian traffic as some prime New York spots.

Edward Finn, NAI Global's senior vice-president, said Vancouver's improving economy, the strengthening of the Canadian dollar and the impending 2010 Olympics all increase Vancouver's desirability as a retail destination, and "has pushed Vancouver to [become] one of the leading retail cities in terms of the price of exclusive retail space."

(prepared by Derrick Penner/Vancouver Sun)

THERE'S GOLD IN VANCOUVER'S STORES:

The city has become enough of a retail destination to earn a fifth-place ranking on commercial realtor NAI Global's top-10 list of the world's most expensive places to rent a retail store.

1. Hong Kong -- $696

2. Tokyo -- $209

3. Beijing -- $183

4. Seoul -- $161

5. Vancouver -- $135

6. Shanghai -- $134

7. Taipei -- $131

8. Jakarta -- $114

9. New York City, Midtown -- $86

10. Melbourne -- $81

Source: NAI Global, commercial realtors

Ran with fact box "There's Gold in Vancouver's Stores",which has been appended to the end of the story"