And you thought Manhattan's retail market was struggling. Fifth Avenue in the 50s is doing just fine thanks to tourists with foreign currency to blow on discounted American goods. The former Brooks Brothers store at 666 Fifth Avenue is now up for grabs and five major chains are currently vying to take over the space (which costs $30 million a year to rent): Uniqlo, Topshop, Zara, Century 21, and Forever 21. So instead of sneering at the next camera-toting German couple who bumps into you on Fifth, thank them for their patronage and move along, okay? [NYP]

The sale of 666 Fifth Avenue, the building purchased by the Kushner Companies just back in January for $1.8 billion dollars, is now being held up as an example of the bygone crazy financing of yesterday. (Remember early 2007? Wasn't it nuts?) The Kushner family got an interest-only mortgage for $1.215 billion—that's the kind of mortgage the poor people get too! But the mortgage was based on potential projected rental income rates, not the insanely cheap leases that currently exist—and the retail space is locked in for another seven years. So the building's shortfall between its mortgage and its income is just $5 million a month. (This will really add up as the years go by.) So to keep the building, the company is using its own cash to pay back things like $200 million bridge loans! [NYT]