Here is a simple question I would like to pose to my readers: Can investors double their money on investments with holding periods of 90 to 365 days? They could not in the stock market or with treasuries. Yet, they might be able to achieve that kind of return if they are lucky enough to buy and sell properties in Manhattan, especially in the Herald Square and Times Square neighborhoods.

Examples of rapid appreciation can be found on nearly every street. In February, a joint venture of the City Investment Fund and Savanna Investment Management paid $43 million, or about $244 a square foot, for the 16-story, 176,000-square-foot office building at 131 W. 33rd St. The property is directly across the street from the Hotel Pennsylvania and Manhattan Mall. The senior broker on that transaction, Adelaide Polsinelli of Besen & Associates, said the property attracted several potential buyers, including Joseph Chetrit, Vornado Realty Trust, and Joseph Moinian.

On Friday, the buyers retained the investment sale team of Woody Heller, Will Silverman, and David Endelman at Studley to flip the property. About 75% of the building is leased to showroom tenants, and the property can be nearly vacated within three to five years. According to trade sources, the sellers are hoping to double their money in less than four months by selling the property for $500 a square foot.

Driving much of the Herald Square area’s appreciation, and perhaps the biggest beneficiary of its rising values, is Vornado Realty Trust, with a portfolio of about 7.5 million square feet in Penn Plaza and Herald Square. Its holdings in Penn Plaza include One, Two, and Eleven Penn Plaza, 7 W. 34th St., and 330 W. 34th St. In January, Vornado paid $689 million for the acquisition of the mixed-use Manhattan Mall, located on the entire Sixth Avenue block front between 32nd and 33rd streets. The property is adjacent to the 1.4 million-square-foot, 1,700-room Hotel Pennsylvania, also owned by Vornado. At my class at the NYU Real Estate Institute last week, the president of Vornado Realty Trust, Michael Fascitelli, said the company would likely raze the hotel and build an office building that may have a smaller hotel component.

“The Times Square and Herald Square neighborhoods have seen tremendous growth in retail rents and the type of tenants desiring the space, which has translated into significantly escalating property values,” the chairman of Massey Knakal Realty Services, Robert Knakal, said.

“Vornado’s plans for transforming the Penn Station area into the ‘Rockefeller Center of the 21st Century’ are absolute incredible and very logical given the infrastructure already existing in the neighborhood. Tenants with some foresight should be taking every inch of space they can get. I can’t wait to see what it will look like in 10 to 15 years,” Mr. Knakal said.

After years of stagnation, property in the area is changing hands rapidly in the past two years. “This area has been overlooked given all of the activity in Midtown and is an in-fill type situation with a lot of old, obsolete, or ill-conceived real estate in the area,” the chairman of the real estate practice at Greenberg Traurig, Robert Ivanhoe, said. “With new and improved retail, development of a new firstclass hotel, retail, office, and residential projects, and most importantly, the new Penn Station, this area has enormous potential for economic and cultural revival. The plans and ultimately success of Vornado’s plans for the Penn Plaza area will help determine the success of Herald Square to Penn Station.”

One of Manhattan’s most active buyers and sellers of office properties is L&L Holdings. In 2005, L&L and its joint venture partner, Investcorp, paid about $41 million, or $196 a square foot, for the 196,000-square-foot showroom building at 250 W. 39th St. between Seventh and Eighth avenues. Earlier this month, it entered a contract to sell the building, built in 1929, to a joint venture of Lincoln Properties and the State of Illinois Pension System, for $93.5 million, or $474 a square foot. Earlier this month, L&L announced that it had entered into a contract to purchase the 800,000-square-foot building known as the Toy Center South, located at 190–200 Fifth Ave., for about $500 million. The seller is a joint venture of the Chetrit Group and Arbor Realty Trust.

Last month, a local investor paid $56 million, or about $237 a square foot, for an 18-story, 139,000-square-foot building at 252–258 W. 37th St. and a 14-story, 96,000-square-foot building at 256–260 W. 37th St. On West 38th Street, the Lee Ann Steinberg Charitable Trust sold the 12-story, 44,300-square-foot building at 39–41 W. 38th St. and a 7,451-square-foot building at 43 W. 38th St. for $14.39 million, or $278 a square foot.

The managing principal at Miller Cicero, John Cicero, said development on this stretch of Sixth Avenue “is the logical evolution of the rezoning that took place in late 1990s. Development began around 23rd Street and like a wave continued northward. With the proximity of Penn Station and Herald Square, plus subway access, the PATH train, and the strength of the office market, this area is ripe for office development, as well as residential.”

In November 2004, a partnership of Tishman Speyer Properties and the New York City Employees and the New York City Teachers pension plans paid $175 million, or $227 a square foot, for the New York Times Building at 229 W. 43rd St. The 770,000-square-foot property is made up of four connected building whose occupant, the New York Times, has been the sole occupant since the property was constructed in 1913. Last week, the joint ventures retained CB Richard Ellis to sell the building, which will be vacated when the Times relocates to its new headquarters across from the Port Authority Bus Terminal. Industry leaders expect the property, which has excellent retail and office components, may fetch in excess of $550 million, or $725 a square foot.

Eastern Consolidated has been retained to sell an existing retail building and air rights on a blockthrough lot located at 150 W. 34th St. The building is the flagship store of Old Navy, which is leased through April 2019. The existing structure has about 56,000 square feet of above-grade space, providing about 228,000 square feet of transferable air rights.

One building that has seen ownership change hands numerous times over the past few years is the 420,000-square-foot Penncom Plaza at 132 W. 31st St. The 18-story office building built in 1925 was acquired in July 2004 for $91 million by a joint venture of C&K Properties and Zamir Equities. The joint venture paid about $218 a square foot to a joint venture of Tribeca Associates and Ritchie Capital Management. This joint venture acquired the property in November 2003 for $63 million, or $150 a square foot, from Blackacre Capital Management and Taconic Investment Partners. Blackacre and Taconic acquired the building in 1997 from the Lemle family, which had owned the property for years. With all the activity taking place in the neighborhood, certain industry leaders feel the current owners may soon retain an investment broker to evaluate its sale.

About a year ago, a prominent real estate family sold a development site on Sixth Avenue, on the westerly block front between 30th and 31st streets, consisting of seven properties and with a buildable envelope of 338,000 square feet. The purchaser, Baruch Singer, paid $117.5 million. Last month, Tessler Development paid $140 million for the site, which is likely to be office, retail, and residential. Jules Demchek and J.D. Carlisle are building the block front one block south, and according to trade sources, plan to build a residential rental building with hotel services. Massey Knakal Realty Services has been retained to market the westerly block front on Broadway between 29th and 30th streets, where a developer can erect a 250,000-square-foot building.

Industry sources say they believe that Five Penn Plaza, located at 461 Eighth Ave., will soon be sold. According to real estate sources, the 24-story, 608,000-square-foot office building is expected to fetch close to $300 million, or $500 a square foot. As I reported last month, Himmel + Meringoff, the 20-story, 91,050-square-foot office building at 989 Avenue of the Americas, is on the market and expected to sell for close to $45 million, or $500 a square foot. Directly across street, the 16-story, 99,000-square-foot Atlantic Bank of New York building is being marketed for sale. According to real estate sources, the building can be delivered vacant and the seller is expecting to achieve a sale price of close to $800 a square foot. Sources says the former Smith Barney building, the 10-story, 330,385-square-foot property at 333 W. 34th St. now owned by Citigroup, may trade for more than $400 a square foot.

A joint venture of the Fortis Group, Leon Charney, George Comfort & Sons, and investors will be closing on the purchase of two adjoining office buildings on West 40th and 41st streets near Bryant Park. The joint venture is paying about $200 million, or $597 a square foot. The joint venture is purchasing the properties from a joint venture of AEW Capital Management and Colliers ABR, for $100 million for the 320,000-square-foot office building at 119 W. 40th St. and the adjoining 15,000-square-foot building at 120 W. 41st St.

Broadway Real Estate Partners is purchasing the 1.7 millionsquare-foot office tower at 450 W. 33rd St. for about $664 million, or $380 a square foot. The property is being sold by a joint venture of the Chetrit Group and Arbor Realty Trust. The seller will keep a 2% interest in the property, as well as 50% of the property’s 800,000 square feet of air rights, and a significant profit will be recognized by the sellers. In December 2004, in a transaction valued at $400 million, the property was acquired by a joint venture of affiliates of Max Capital, the Bass family, Angelo Gordon & Co, and the Lone Star fund (all of which were existing owners of the property) together with the new investors Arbor Realty Trust, Inc. and the Chetrit Group.

To quote a number of colleagues in the real estate industry, in these incredible times of real estate sales, “never fall in love with a piece of property.” A bird in your hand with profit is better than waiting for a time when the market can change.

Mr. Stoler, a contributing editor to The New York Sun, is a television broadcaster and senior principal at a real estate investment fund. He can be reached at mstoler@newyorkrealestatetv.com