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After languishing for nearly a decade, the development of Rockefeller Plaza West is heating up.
Big companies, including Morgan Stanley Dean Witter & Co., are in talks with Rockefeller Group Inc. about occupying all or most of its planned 1 million-square-foot office building. Once a tenant signs a lease for at least half the space, construction will begin.
"The project is enjoying significant interest from the market," says Jonathan D. Green, president and chief executive of Rockefeller Group Development Corp., the Japanese real estate firm's development subsidiary. "We anticipate announcing an anchor tenant by the end of the year."
The growing interest in the so-called Rock West site--located on the northern edge of Times Square at Seventh Avenue and 49th and 50th streets--is testimony to how strong the Manhattan office market has become. Midtown rents are soaring above $50 a square foot, the magic number that makes it economically feasible for developers to build and fill up new office towers. Companies that want desperately to expand are finding that big blocks of vacant space are dwindling, and new office construction is scarce.
Moreover, demand for office space in Times Square is particularly hot.
In a market this vibrant, the project is unlikely to be hampered by Rockefeller Group's conservative approach of lining up tenants first, rather than...