IN BRIEF (Page 17)

Priciest rents drop

Store rents tumbled in the world's most expensive locations in the first quarter and will continue to decline through the middle of 2010 as the global recession curbs spending, according to CB Richard Ellis Group Inc.

New York City kept its top rank from a year earlier as the most expensive retail market even as asking rents on Manhattan's Fifth Avenue fell 10 percent to $1,800 a square foot per year, the Los Angeles-based commercial broker said in a report today.