Q2 2026 Retail Lease Deals: The Comps That Topped the National Data

CompStak’s Q2 2026 Retail Deals of Distinction is out, spotlighting retail leases signed across the US. You’ll see how much free rent Coach pulled out of its new Fifth Avenue flagship and what Hobby Lobby is paying per square foot to hold 55,000 SF in Lancaster County. Below are the five retail lease deals that topped the report, one per category.

Top National Deal by Value: New Lease or Expansion

Coach · 645 5th Avenue · New York City, Madison/Fifth Avenue submarket

• 13,280 SF total transaction, new lease, across ground floor, second floor and lower level
• $1,877.49/SF starting rent, 11x the Q2 2026 Manhattan retail average
• 133-month term (11 years, 1 month), 16.2% longer than the Manhattan retail average

The comp is dated May 1, 2026, with a September 1, 2026 commencement and 3% annual escalations. Crown Acquisitions and Oxford Properties own Olympic Tower. Crown Retail Services held the leasing assignment with Brittany Bragg, and Cushman & Wakefield represented Coach with Jason Greenstone, Mike O’Neill and Taylor Reynolds.

The concession package is the part worth stopping on. CompStak records 13.5 months of free rent with no landlord work, on a term of 133 months. That is 10.2% of the lease given back in abatement, and ownership contributed nothing to the buildout of a flagship. A tenant paying eleven times the market average generally expects the landlord to fund the space. Here Coach funded it.

The comp notes record the deal as a relocation from 685 Fifth Avenue. The space was occupied by Armani Exchange and most recently by Eden Gallery, a contemporary art seller, and it opens in 2027 as a new Coach House.

Top National Deal by Value: Renewal or Extension

Hobby Lobby · 2090 Lincoln Highway East · Philadelphia, Central PA, DE and Southern NJ market, Lancaster County submarket

• 55,000 SF, renewal
• $9.00/SF starting rent, 53% below the market average for renewals in the quarter
• 125-month term (10 years, 5 months), 131.3% longer than the market average
• $5.2 million total consideration, the largest of any retail renewal in the quarter

The arithmetic holds. 55,000 SF at $9.00 across 10.4 years lands at roughly $5.16 million, which is the $5.2 million the deck reports.

East Towne Center is a 312,320 SF neighborhood shopping center built in 1974. Pennmark Management Company owns it. CompStak records no brokers on either side, so this transacted direct, which is common on a renewal where neither party wants to introduce a third one.

Read the two figures together. A landlord took 53% below what renewals in that market cleared this quarter, and got 125 months for it. On a fifty-year-old center, a decade of committed occupancy from a national craft retailer is worth more than a mark-to-market rent that might come with a vacancy behind it.

Top Central Business District Deal by Starting Rent

Coach · 645 5th Avenue · New York City, Madison/Fifth Avenue submarket

• $1,877.49/SF starting rent, over 13x the Q2 2026 average for CBD retail leases in New York City
• 22.1% longer term than the New York City CBD average

Same lease as the value category above. It appears twice because the benchmark changes, and the change is informative.

Against all Manhattan retail, this rent runs 11x the average. Against New York City central business district retail specifically, it runs over 13x. Work the two backwards and the CBD average sits below the broader Manhattan retail average. Being the highest CBD rent in the country and eleven times the borough average are two different claims, and this lease happens to carry both.

Top High Street Deal by Starting Rent

Dunhill · 821 Madison Avenue · New York City, Upper East Side submarket

• 8,070 SF total transaction, new lease, across six levels
• $1,138.36/SF on the ground floor, against a $195.17/SF blended rent for the whole premises
• 120-month term (10 years), with 6 months of free rent

The comp is dated May 19, 2026, commencing September 19, 2026 and expiring September 19, 2036, with 3% annual escalations. Dunhill is a subsidiary of Richemont.

This is the clearest illustration in the report of how high street retail actually prices. CompStak’s retail notes break the premises into six levels: 1,325 SF lower level, 1,421 SF each on floors one through three, and 1,241 SF each on floors four and five. Those sum to 8,070 SF, matching the comp’s own total. The ground floor carries $1,138.36/SF. Blend it across all six levels and the number falls to $195.17.

For anyone underwriting a Madison Avenue asset, that spread is the whole game. Quote the ground floor and the building looks like a trophy. Quote the blend and it looks like ordinary Upper East Side space, where CompStak puts the average current retail rent at $158.32/SF. Both are true at once, and which one you use decides your valuation.

Top National Shopping Center Lease

Crunch Fitness · 1730-1738 Watt Avenue · Sacramento, Central Valley market, Watt Avenue submarket

• 32,682 SF, new lease, 228.3% larger than the market average for leases inside shopping centers
• $1.75/SF monthly ($21.00/SF annually) starting rent, 10.6% below the market average for shopping center leases
• 180-month term (15 years)
• $8.7 million total consideration, the largest shopping center lease by value nationwide

Arden Creek Town Center is a 98,052 SF grocery-anchored neighborhood center, built in 1969 and renovated in 1986, running 97% occupancy with an average lease size of 31,138 SF. Merlone Geier Partners owns it. The lease is NNN, commencing August 1, 2026, with no brokers recorded on either side.

The comp notes carry the part the callouts leave out. This is the former Rite Aid box, and the space needs substantial work to meet fitness specifications, so ownership is providing a $65/SF allowance toward the conversion.

That reframes the rent. A starting rent 10.6% below the market average looks like a landlord conceding on price, until you account for a landlord also funding the conversion of a dark drugstore into a gym. What Merlone Geier bought is fifteen years of committed occupancy in a grocery-anchored center, from a use that does not compete with the anchor and that brings repeat weekday traffic. Net effective rent runs $1.84/SF monthly, above the $1.75 start, which is what escalations do to a fifteen-year term.

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

What This Means for Retail Owners and Asset Managers

Three things in this quarter’s data should change what you pull next.

1. The concession line is doing more work than the rent line. Coach gave back 13.5 months on a 133-month term and got no landlord work at eleven times market rent. Crunch Fitness took a below-market rent with $65/SF toward its buildout. Same quarter, opposite structures. Reading either face rent alone tells you almost nothing about the deal.
2. A high street rent means nothing without the floor it sits on. Dunhill’s ground floor cleared $1,138.36/SF. The same lease blends to $195.17/SF across six levels. If you are benchmarking a Madison Avenue asset against a headline per-square-foot number, check which floor produced it before you underwrite anything.
3. The longest terms this quarter came at the lowest rents. Hobby Lobby renewed for 125 months at 53% below the market’s renewal average. Crunch Fitness signed 180 months at 10.6% below. Duration is being bought with rent, and on older centers that looks like a trade owners are willing to make.

One caveat on all of it. Five categories covering four leases is not a market sample, and three of the five are Manhattan. Use them to bracket the range, then pull the full comp set for your own submarket before you price anything.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What was the most expensive retail lease signed in Q2 2026? A: Coach’s new lease at 645 5th Avenue in Manhattan, at a starting rent of $1,877.49/SF, which CompStak puts at 11 times the Q2 2026 Manhattan retail average and over 13 times the average for New York City central business district retail. The lease runs 11 years and 1 month.

Q: What was the largest retail lease in Q2 2026? A: Crunch Fitness took 32,682 SF at Arden Creek Town Center in Sacramento, 228.3% larger than the average lease signed inside shopping centers in that market. The largest renewal was Hobby Lobby’s 55,000 SF at East Towne Center in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.

Q: Why do CompStak’s rent figures differ from the gross rents quoted elsewhere? A: Retail rents in this report are adjusted to net lease type and quoted annually so deals can be compared against each other. A lease quoted at a gross annual rate, or a West Coast deal quoted monthly, will show a different figure here than on the original term sheet. Crunch Fitness at $1.75/SF monthly is $21.00/SF annually, for example.

Q: How much free rent are Manhattan retail landlords giving? A: In this report, two Manhattan leases carried abatement. Coach received 13.5 months on a 133-month term, or 10.2% of the lease, with no landlord work. Dunhill received 6 months on a 120-month term, or 5%. Two comps are not a market rate, but both sit inside the range of what Manhattan retail concessions look like in Q2 2026.

Q: How does CompStak verify these lease comps? A: 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. Comps that arrive missing a key attribute are labeled as limited detail on the platform rather than published as complete.

Pull the Comps for Your Own Center

Five deals give you the national edges of the quarter, and this one runs from $9.00/SF in Lancaster County to $1,877.49/SF on Fifth Avenue. Your next renewal turns on neither. It turns on what the twenty comps inside your own submarket cleared, what those landlords funded, and how much abatement it took to get the term you are underwriting.

Read the full report here.