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Times Square's "spectaculars" - the biggest and best of its famous billboards - draw tens of millions of eyeballs every year and are increasing the interest of some of the city's biggest landlords.
Both SL Green Realty Corp., the city's largest office landlord, and Vornado Realty Trust are making major moves in the vertical real estate market at the Crossroads of the World. What they and others are betting on is the ability of the new generation of digital signs to become major money spinners akin to the retail spaces they lease out at street level.
Depending on the location and dimensions, billboard space in Times Square can command $300,000 to $400,000 a month under a long-term contract from a single advertiser. The digital signs open new possibilities to market the space in shorter increments, costing as much as $40,000 for a day in prime holiday seasons.
Behind those rates is an army of advertisers clamoring to get their brands in front of the 35 million tourists who pass through the square annually, and the millions more who see the signs on friends' Facebook...