Just west of the heart of Times Square is “an avenue of commerce that rivals all north-south thoroughfares in the Big Apple,” the director at Eastern Consolidated Properties, Alan Miller, said.

“As the Times Square area developed into a magnet for large law firms, media, and financial services firms, eyes turned west to find opportunities for development of walk-to-work luxury housing”, the senior director of sales at Massey Knakal Realty Services, Christoffer Broadhead, said. “Eighth Avenue has the right zoning and location to meet this need.”

McSam Hotel Group LLC is one company taking advantage of this proximity to Times Square and a robust hospitality market, building no less than 1,300 hotel rooms in seven new groundup developments, all on one block. Starting at 585 Eighth Ave., Sam Chang, the president of McSam Hotel, one of the nation’s largest builders of new hotels, is transforming the once dreary block on West 39th Street between Eighth and Ninth avenues into a hotel destination. It is an area that has a tremendous need for affordable hotel rooms.

Meanwhile, in June the new headquarters of the New YorkTimes was declared “topped out,” with the installation of the final steel beam.The 52-story tower sits on the east side of Eighth Avenue between 40th and 41st streets, across from the Port Authority Bus Terminal. The site represents the westward expansion of Midtown and the most significant construction along Eighth Avenue since the construction of One Worldwide Plaza in 1989.

The tower, which will be the third tallest skyscraper in New York City, is a joint venture of the New York Times Company, Forest City Ratner Companies, and ING Real Estate.The building will have 1.54 million square feet of gross space.

The New York Times Company will occupy about 800,000 square feet on the second through the 28th floors, with Forest City Ratner and ING Real Estate owning about 700,000 square feet on floors 29 through 52, as well as 24,000 square feet of street-level retail space. In June, Forest City announced it had entered into an agreement to acquire ING Real Estate’s interest in the tower.

Prior to the construction of the Times tower, the most significant construction on Eighth Avenue was the development of Worldwide Plaza.The complex occupies an entire city block bounded by Eighth and Ninth avenues and 49th and 50th streets on the site of the third Madison Square Garden. The office tower, One Worldwide Plaza, is a 47-story, 1.5 millionsquare-foot office building developed by William Zecdkendorf Jr. The residential component, 455 apartments, is located in a 38-story tower and sixstory low-rises.

There are also other developments in the works on Eighth Avenue.

SJP Properties last month purchased the eastern block front site on the avenue between 41st and 42nd streets from Howard and Edward Milstein. It paid $306 million for the site. On Monday, SJP announced plans to construct a 40-story, 1 million-squarefoot office tower. It would buy additional development rights for $23.2 million. The project would be a development of SJP and the Prudential Insurance Company. It was the last remaining parcel in the Times Square redevelopment district.

On the northwest corner of West 42nd Street and Eighth Avenue, a Duane Reade is situated on a small parcel that was purchased by a group led by Jeff Sutton and Joe Cayre. It was purchased from HSBC Bank for about $30 million.

On the southwest corner of West 44th Street and Eighth Avenue, Steve Witkoff and a minority partner, Harwood Properties, are planning to construct a 250,000-square-foot residential condominium with about 256 units at 693-699 Eighth Ave. and 307-321 W. 43rd St. A few years ago, Mr. Witkoff purchased the majority stake in Harwood’s parking garage at the site for about $26 million.

Across from the Milford Plaza Hotel is a potential development site owned by the Hotel Employees Union. The real estate industry has been keeping a close watch as to when the union plans to take advantage of this west side block front between 44th and 45th streets, where another luxury mixeduse building will rise out of the ground one day soon.

Industry leaders expect Related Companies and Boston Properties to acquire a parking lot owned by Champion Parking with frontage on the east side of Eighth Avenue on West 45th Street. A major residential tower is expected to rise on the site. The Related Companies recently acquired a site at 259-263 W. 45th St., adjacent to the development site, which would be used as well. Air rights would be purchased from local theaters.

At the northeast corner of 46th Street and Eighth Avenue, with addresses at 301-307 W. 46th St. and 733-763 Eighth Ave., SJP is developing a 42-story condominium tower with 250 units on the former site of McHale’s pub. In order to develop the site, it also acquired about 140,000 square feet of air rights from the Brooks Atkins and Al Hirschfield theaters. SJP is developing a condominium tower at 45 Park Ave. on the former site of the Sheraton Russell Hotel.

Recently, a development site at the northwest corner of West 46th Street and Eighth Avenue was sold to Jim Money of Tribeach Holdings, a small, Irish-backed development company that plans to construct a new building.

Just south of this are two properties owned by investor Lloyd Goldman — the site of the China Club on the southeast corner of West 47th Street and a vacant site on the northwest corner of West 47th Street. Industry leaders expect the sites to be rented to a bank until the ownership decides to develop or sell them.

A 40-story, 119-unit luxury condominium tower will rise on Eighth Avenue between 47th and 48th streets. The site contains 130,000 square feet, and when completed the building will have 92,000 square feet of residential and 1,663 square feet of retail space. The building will be located on lots at 785 Eighth Ave. and 306 W. 48th St.The building is a development of Ulo Barad, David Scharf’s, Espanade Capital LLC, and Jay Eisenstadt, as well as an entity consisting of partners of Navillus Corporation.

“The Scharf site shows the extent to which builders will innovate to meet the thirst for development properties on Eighth Avenue,” Mr. Broadhead said.

In the first quarter of 2007, El-Ad Properties expects the first purchasers to move into its newest luxury condominium tower at 310 W. 52nd St. The Link, a 215-unit tower, is straddling a site between Midtown and the special Clinton district, where building heights are limited to 70 feet or seven stories. It features a 471-foot high-rise and an adjoining mid-rise to the west to satisfy the dual zoning requirements.

“The Link is a text book example of the benefits of developing on Eighth Avenue as opposed to developing in the special Clinton district,” which starts west of Eighth Avenue, Mr. Broadhead said.

The development began when Hampshire Hotel purchased the twostory Studio Instrumental rental building in May 2004 for $9 million, or $125 a developable foot. The first 50 feet of the building are not located in the height-restricted zone, while the remaining 50 feet are in the special Clinton district. In September 2004, Hampshire Hotel sold the site, plus approximately 167,000 square feet of air rights, for $43 million, or $181 a developable foot, to El-Ad.

Industry leaders expect a joint venture of Gary Barnett, Extell Investment, and Westbrook Partners to sell a residential rental building, the 264-unit Encore apartment building at 301 W. 53rd St., aka 891 Eighth Ave. The joint venture purchased the 25-story building about two years ago for $130 million from Ruben Schron.

This summer, employees of the Heart Corporation moved into the Hearst Tower, a 46-story, 856,000-square-foot office tower.The new building was built on the six-story structure commission by William Randolph Hearst to house the 12 magazines he owned in 1927, when construction began. It was completed in 1928, at a cost of $2 million. The tower, located at 959 Eighth Ave., between 56th and 56th streets, originally was named the International Magazine Building.The building was designated as a landmark site by the Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1988.

Across the street, on Eighth Avenue between 54th and 55th streets, the Hearst Corporation had owned a large site for more than 20 years. Early this year, Robert Gladstone of Madison Equities paid about $170 million for the site. The developer also purchased air rights from the Al Hirschfield and St. James theaters. It plans to build a luxury high-rise and hotel tower, which is rumored to include a Hyatt Hotel.

On September 15, the sales office will open at the Sheffield, the 50-story mixed-use residential tower at 322 West 57th St. The partnership of Swig Equities, Yair Levy, and Serge Hoyda paid $418 million for the property in April 2005.

Later this year, Thompson Hotels, owned by the Pomeranc Family and its investors Rosen Partners, will open 6 Columbus, a 100-room hotel on the former site of the West Park Hotel at 6 Columbus Ave. The joint venture acquired the site a few years ago, and is in the process of adding three floors and doing a gut renovation of the former 90-room hotel directly across from the Time Warner Center.

I have to concur with Alan Miller when he says,”Eighth Avenue, once the downtrodden thoroughfare acting as the step-brother of Times Square’s most famous boulevard, Broadway, has blossomed into what can certainly be called New York City’s most exciting and active passageway.”

Mr. Stoler is a television broadcaster and senior vice president at a title insurance company. He can be reached at mstoler@firstam.com.