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Real estate developers are inveterate crystal ball watchers, and one of their favorite pastimes these days is predicting where the next office tower will rise.
As lenders who got burned in the early 1990s get ready to finance ground-up construction once again, most of the city's big builders are jockeying to be first in line.
Or rather, second. Douglas Durst has beaten them to the punch with 4 Times Square, the first office tower to be built in a decade. The building has attracted scads of media attention and choice tenants, setting off a race in the real estate community to put up the next property.
Topping the short list of prime development candidates are the three remaining Times Square sites held by Prudential Insurance Co. of America. Mr. Durst is the front-runner for one, on the northwest corner of 42nd Street and Seventh Avenue. Marriott Corp. is expected to win the Hansen's Brewery site, and the third is still wide open.
Beyond Times Square, developers are keeping close watch on some pedigreed parcels in midtown. They include the proposed Rockefeller Plaza West on Seventh Avenue between 49th and 50th streets, and 383 Madison Ave., between 46th and 47th streets. Then...