The Wall Street Journal reports that art galleries are migrating back to Soho:

Brokers say rents on West Broadway have shrunk from their peak in 2008 and 2009, when some landlords were asking as much as $400 a square foot. Those rents now hover around $200 a square foot, according to Faith Hope Consolo, head of Prudential Douglas Elliman’s retail group.

“I think a lot of galleries are going to come back,” says Bertrand Delacroix, who has just re-opened his small gallery on West Broadway after being forced out of SoHo four years ago. “Rents are doable again.”

SoHo, of course, was pioneered by art galleries and for years it was the top neighborhood for young and promising artists to sell their paintings and sculptures.

But as rents skyrocketed, all but the top galleries were pushed out to neighborhoods like Chelsea by high-end fashion stores and upscale national chains like Apple Inc.

Galleries See New Bargains on West Broadway (Wall Street Journal)