New York City's retail rents fell by as much as one quarter from 2019 levels, according to the Real Estate Board of New York. Asking retail rents in 17 Manhattan corridors declined in the fall, with eight areas posting their lowest average asking rents in at least 10 years.

A plan to turn Madison Square Garden into a new Penn Station concourse and create a new sports arena between two skyscrapers near Herald Square has cleared a hurdle at Community Board Five. This article includes new renderings from the Practice for Architecture and Urbanism.

New York City is seeking qualified entities for the development of a corner in the Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn into community space with affordable housing. The city-owned site at Church and Bedford avenues has been vacant since 2015, when a school building dating to the 19th century was demolished.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has revealed plans for two extensions of the High Line, an elevated park in Manhattan. Cuomo says "the most ambitious redevelopment that New York City has seen in decades" will jump-start "a district-wide redevelopment of the West Side" after the pandemic lockdowns end.

Ordinary people tend to focus on the benefits they realize from infrastructure rather than on types of infrastructure, and CG/LA Infrastructure CEO Norman Anderson believes projects and funding should follow suit. That means following the UN's "people-first" model prioritizing such factors as sustainability and equity, although in the US it would ultimately be a matter of reconciling the interests of all stakeholders.

Architecture, engineering and construction companies can stay lean financially by focusing on tech investments at the enterprise scale, as opposed to stand-alone projects, according to a report from Deloitte. AEC firms can also remain competitive by billing indirectly for IT and by taking advantage of the budding market for smart retrofits.

The Wild offers an augmented and virtual reality platform for virtual tours using building information modeling information. Gabe Paez, founder and CEO, says the technology aims to "take people from across the globe and instantly put them into a shared built environment."

Contractors can approach community financial institutions with applications for the latest round of Paycheck Protection Program loans, with processing to begin Wednesday. However, the loans are designed to prioritize businesses owned by people of color, women, veterans and the underserved.

Possible links between rezonings and gentrification dominated the discussion at a recent City Council hearing on a bill that would require a racial disparity analysis before certain actions are undertaken. Advocates disagree with the de Blasio administration, which contends there is no "causal link."

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