Cover StoryICSC Special ReportThe Retail Picture Comes Into Focus

Elbow your way through the throngs in Times Square to the tune of a dozen foreign languages and you may understandably reach one conclusion quickly: Retail is back, baby.
New York is still king, but the rest of the world is holding up our throne. Forty-nine million tourists visited New York in 2009, a throng the size of South Korea. "That's the icing on the real estate cake," said Faith Hope Consolo, of Prudential Douglas Elliman.