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AS THE FRENZY over midtown Manhattan office space intensifies, landlords arc tightening the screws.
In the past two weeks alone, numerous property owners have jacked up asking rents by $10 a square foot. Others are refusing tenants' requests for early lease renewals.
"The market is moving so fast that if a week goes by and you aren't paying attention, you miss something," says Peter Turchin, a senior vice president at CB Richard Ellis.
At the end of the first quarter, asking rents in midtown were nearly $50 a square foot, the highest in four years, according to Cushman & Wakefield Inc. Fifteen leases had been signed for more than $100 a square foot, compared with only 10 such deals for all of 2005.
With prices ratcheting up, some owners have stopped publicizing the asking rents for available space. The landlord of 135 W. 50th St., where 150,000 square feet of space is available, removed the asking rent of $56 a square foot from market...