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Lower Fifth Avenue, an area between 42nd and 49th streets in New York City, saw the biggest asking rent decline among Manhattan’s prominent retail corridors in the third quarter, falling 25 percent from the same period last year, according to a report by Jones Lang LaSalle Inc., Bloomberg News reported. In contrast, rents along upper Fifth Avenue, a swanky shopping district that runs from 49th Street north to Central Park, slipped just 0.7 percent over the same period. Rents on upper Fifth Avenue had surged in recent years, pushing out many of the street’s luxury retailers whose sales hadn’t kept pace. The cost increases have leveled out a bit, Smith said. On lower Fifth, some landlords who created oversized spaces in a bid to attract major chains are now struggling to fill those stores.

Forever 21 Inc. will keep open more than 60 U.S. stores previously set to shutter as part of the company’s bankruptcy restructuring after the retailer secured rent concessions from its biggest landlords, Bloomberg News reported. It’s an early win for the fast-fashion company after it filed for chapter 11 protection in September as talks with mall operators about a possible rescue broke down. The company had no plan for reorganization when it filed, and said it would close at least 178 U.S. stores and dozens more internationally as it worked toward a turnaround. Forever 21 is now targeting about 111 closures, though the ultimate number is still in flux and the final count could change. “Forever 21 was a top-10 tenant for most of the retail REITs we cover, so the landlords have been willing to be flexible about cutting deals,” said Jim Sullivan, an equity research analyst at BTIG who follows the commercial property industry.

Fannie Mae’s and Freddie Mac’s federal regulator took new steps to privatize the mortgage-finance companies on Monday, telling the firms to help lay the groundwork for their own transitions out of an 11-year government conservatorship, the Wall Street Journal reported. In new policy goals, the Federal Housing Finance Agency for the first time released formal objectives calling for Fannie’s and Freddie’s return to the private sector. The companies have been in government conservatorship since the 2008 financial crisis. FHFA Director Mark Calabria, who took over the agency in April, is pressing to privatize the mortgage-finance companies, which back around half the nation’s mortgage market. Many specific policy details remain to be ironed out over the coming weeks and months, such as how much capital the firms must raise once they eventually leave government control. Monday’s policy goals, contained in a strategic plan as well as a document known as a scorecard, included instructions for the companies to work with regulators as they revamp a post-crisis regulation that has transformed the mortgage market by allowing more deeply indebted borrowers to obtain home financing. Calabria and other Washington policy makers want to curtail the provision to ensure the companies operate competitively with other market players, “with no special advantages for anyone,” Calabria said.