Q1 2026 Retail Lease Deals: Ten Comps That Set the National Bar

We’re back with CompStak’s Q1 2026 Retail Deals of Distinction, spotlighting retail leases signed across the US. With the Deals of Distinction, you’ll learn more about Denny’s newest suburban Seattle lease and how far below rent in place the newest Madison Avenue lease landed. Below are the ten retail lease deals that topped CompStak’s Q1 2026 Deals of Distinction, one per category.

Top National Deal by Value: New Lease or Expansion

Slick City · 7477-7497 North Blackstone Avenue · Sacramento and Central Valley market, Fresno submarket

• 36,725 SF
• $158.64/SF starting rent, 5.5x the market average for new leases and expansions
• 120-month term, 66.8% above the market average

An experiential operator paid a large premium for the right box and committed to a decade to get it. The property is a grocery-anchored neighborhood center, which is worth noting: the highest-value new lease of the quarter went to a destination-use tenant in a center built around foot traffic, not to a traditional retailer.

Top National Deal by Value: Renewal or Extension

Pep Boys · 3904 Fountain Avenue · Los Angeles, Orange County, and Inland market, Mid-Wilshire submarket

• 3,878 SF
• $44.88/SF, 28.2% above the $35.01/SF market average for renewals and extensions
• 120-month term, 3.1x the 39.3-month market average

The rent premium is the smaller story here. Renewal terms in this market average just over three years. This tenant signed ten. When a service retailer commits that far out on a small footprint, it usually means the location is doing volume the tenant can’t easily replace.

Top Suburban National Deal by Starting Rent

Denny’s · 11755 Pacific Highway Southwest · Seattle and Tacoma Suburban market

• 5,047 SF
• $284.75/SF, 10.1x the $28.07/SF average for suburban retail leases in this market
• 300-month term, 3.9x the 77.7-month market average

Twenty-five years, at ten times the going suburban rate. The report does not disclose the structure behind that spread, so treat the rent and the term as a pair rather than reading either one alone. Whatever the mechanics, it is the longest term in the quarter’s set by a wide margin.

Top CBD Deal by Starting Rent

Levi’s · 1535 Broadway · New York City market, Times Square submarket

• 5,271 SF
• $716.22/SF, 5.1x the market average for CBD deals, and the highest starting rent in the report
• 60-month term, 46% below the CBD market average

This is the exception to the quarter’s long-term pattern. In the most expensive submarket in the country, a five-year renewal buys flexibility, and a tenant paying north of $700/SF has good reason to want it. Everywhere else in this set, tenants paid for certainty instead.

Top National Deal by Transaction Size

Lifestyle Furniture & Mattress · 725 Rockville Pike · Washington, D.C. market, Rockville submarket

• 106,000 SF, 18x the 5,871 SF market average transaction size
• $12.00/SF, 55.2% below the $26.78/SF market average

Context the comp alone doesn’t give you: 725 Rockville Pike is the former Marlo Furniture building. Marlo closed all six of its locations at the end of 2025 after 70 years. A locally owned operator took the space, with the lease commencing April 1, 2026, and opened by June. That is what a 55.2% discount bought the landlord, a backfill of a regional chain’s flagship inside one quarter of it going dark.

Top National Deal by Highest Effective Rent

Urban Outfitters · 575 5th Avenue · New York City market, Grand Central submarket

• 2,771 SF of ground-floor space, part of a 15,345 SF total transaction with 12,574 SF of mezzanine behind it
• $681.33/SF effective rent as reported, 5.2x the $131.43/SF average for new leases in the market
• 180-month term

Fifteen years on Fifth Avenue at more than five times the market average for new leases. The ground-floor and mezzanine split matters if you’re comping this one, because the blended rate across the full 15,345 SF is a very different number than the ground-floor rate.

Top High Street Retail Deal by Starting Rent

Falconeri · 764 Madison Avenue · New York City market, Upper East Side submarket

• 2,400 SF
• $587.95/SF, 4.3x the $135.23/SF market average and 2.6x the $225.21/SF submarket average
• 115.5-month term

Here is the number that should hold your attention. That rent came in 21.9% below the current average rent in place of $753.24/SF for Madison Avenue high street leases between 57th and 72nd Streets. New paper on that corridor is pricing below what existing tenants are already paying. If you own on Madison, that gap is your rollover exposure, and it is now quantified.

Top Restaurant Retail Deal by Starting Rent

Delmonico’s Hospitality Group · 1330 Avenue of the Americas · New York City market, Sixth Avenue submarket

• 6,485 SF
• $179.25/SF, 62% above the $110.62/SF market average for restaurant leases, and 11.6% above the $160.64/SF average rent in place
• 179-month term, 63.5% above the 109.4-month market average

Sixth Avenue moved the opposite direction from Madison. New restaurant deals here are clearing above the standing rent roll, not below it, and the operator signed almost fifteen years to lock the position. Corridor-level comps are the only way to see that split. The market average hides it.

Top Grocery Store Deal by Size

Sprouts Farmers Market · 307-385 U.S. 202 · North and Central New Jersey market

• 28,753 SF, 6.2x the 4,632 SF average transaction size for grocery store leases in this market
• $37/SF, 2x the $18.08/SF market average
• 179-month term, with commencement set for January 1, 2027

Size and rent moved together on this one, which is unusual. A grocer took six times the average footprint and still paid double the average rent, on a fifteen-year term that doesn’t start until 2027. Grocery demand in this market is not price-sensitive at the top of the range.

Top Deal by Starting Rent in a Grocery-Anchored Center

Beanstalk Childcare Academy · 950 Westchester Avenue · New York City market, Bronx submarket

• 11,000 SF
• $420/SF, reported as 3.1x the $135.23/SF average for grocery-anchored center leases in this market and 7.2x the $58.51/SF average rent in place
• 120-month term, a renewal

A childcare tenant paid up for grocery-anchored traffic, on a ten-year term. Note that CompStak reports $135.23/SF as the grocery-anchored center average here and also as the retail lease average for the Falconeri comp, so confirm the denominator before you lean on the multiple.

Data from CompStak’s proprietary database. Learn more at compstak.com.

What This Means for Retail Owners and Asset Managers

Three things from this quarter should change how you underwrite the next one.

1. Price term, not just rent. Tenants signed 120, 179, and 300-month deals well above market averages. Term length is where the concession negotiation is happening.
2. Check new paper against rent in place, by corridor. Madison Avenue new leases came in 21.9% under standing rents while Sixth Avenue restaurant deals came in 11.6% over. Market-level averages hid both facts.
3. Set your big-box expectations with comps, not with hope. A 55.2% discount to market bought 106,000 SF of absorption in Rockville. That trade is now on the record.

One caveat on all of it. Ten superlative deals are not a market sample. Use them to bracket the range, then pull the full comp set for your submarket before you price anything.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What was the highest retail rent signed in Q1 2026? A: The highest starting rent in CompStak’s Q1 2026 Retail Deals of Distinction was $716.22/SF, paid by Levi’s on a renewal at 1535 Broadway in Times Square. The deal ran a 60-month term and priced at 5.1x the market average for CBD retail deals.

Q: What was the largest retail lease signed in Q1 2026? A: The largest by transaction size was a 106,000 SF new lease by Lifestyle Furniture & Mattress at 725 Rockville Pike in the Washington, D.C. market, the former Marlo Furniture building. At 18x the local average deal size, it was structured at $12.00/SF, or 55.2% below the market average of $26.78/SF.

Q: How long are retail lease terms running in 2026? A: Well above market averages in most of the quarter’s top deals. Denny’s signed a 300-month term in suburban Seattle against a 77.7-month market average. Delmonico’s Hospitality Group and Sprouts Farmers Market both signed 179-month terms, and two other top deals ran 120 months.

Q: Are new retail leases pricing above or below rents in place? A: It depends on the corridor, which is why submarket comps matter more than market averages. On Madison Avenue between 57th and 72nd Streets, a new lease priced 21.9% below the $753.24/SF average rent in place. On Sixth Avenue, a new restaurant lease priced 11.6% above the $160.64/SF average.

Q: How are these retail rents calculated? A: All retail rents in these market comparisons are adjusted to net lease type and quoted annually, so deals with different structures can be compared directly. Every comp is processed by a multi-step data verification system, including machine learning algorithms, statistical anomaly detection, and a team of CRE data analysts.

See the Comps Behind Your Own Market

Ten deals give you the national picture. Your renewal conversation next quarter turns on the twenty deals inside your submarket, and on whether new paper there is clearing above or below the rents you already have on the books.

Pull those comps before the meeting, not after it.