Commercial Property: Times Square Signs; Things That Go Blink in the Night

THEY say the neon signs will be even brighter on Broadway, as the Ramada Renaissance hotel rises over Duffy Square with blazing billboards. But there is some darkness around the edges.

"We feel the recession, but not nearly as much as the retail business or the real-estate market," said Richard Schaps, president of Van Wagner Communications of Manhattan, who estimates that his company handles 85 percent of the signs around Times Square.

"Five or six years ago, we had a waiting list," he said. "At this time, we have some space. But it's not wide open.

"Signage in Times Square is never part of an advertiser's original budget," Mr. Schaps said. "We are always looking for companies with additional promotional dollars outside their normal advertising budget. In these times, it's more difficult to scour up these additional dollars. At the same time, advertisers do know the advantages of having that name in front of the public 365 days a year, and the additional benefits of being photographed millions of times.

"It's the most expensive real estate in the world, if you figure it on a per-square-foot basis," he said. "It's much, much greater than any office or retail space in the world" -- which would mean well over $200.

Besides an increase in supply and a slackening demand, Mr. Schaps has noticed another trend: "We see a resurgence of American advertisers very much in the Times Square area. That is due to the fact that we have eight or nine new hotels and you're really seeing Times Square turn back into the entertainment mecca that it once was."

Of the two dozen or so giant signs in Times Square, more than a third currently advertise Japanese electronics and photographic concerns. But more than half advertise domestic products or services.

Other signs are on the way. In recent weeks, the Ramada Renaissance hotel has taken form, showing the facade on 47th Street on which three giant signs are to be hung, for Coca-Cola, Suntory whisky and Samsung electronics. (For now, the only sign is the workers' graffito: "The Moose Is Loose.")

At the base of the building will be an "enormous electronic cube, 20 feet off the ground, smack in the middle of Times Square," as described by the developer, Jeffrey Katz. At the top will be, again in his words, a "big, elliptical sign with concentric rings like the rings of Saturn and a 50-foot radio tower." Neither has been leased yet.

That is not all. There are to be two more signs projecting from the Broadway side, one shaped like an accordion, the other like a wedge. The architects are Mayers & Schiff Associates of Manhattan.

"What we're selling here is visibility," the developer said. "When movie-makers want to say, 'This is New York,' this is what they shoot."

Mr. Katz said he expected the Coke, Suntory and Samsung signs to be ready in time for the Thanksgiving Day parade. The hotel is not to open until next February.

The Ramada Renaissance tower may be the most conspicuous, but it is not alone.

Although Ian Bruce Eichner's One Broadway Place tower, at 45th Street, is missing its office tenants, shopping mall and movie theaters, it does have the new 34- by 65-foot "Qlinn" display, which sits on a setback overlooking Broadway. This is to be joined soon by a neon spectacular for Gold Star, a Korean electronics concern.

Qlinn (pronounced KEW-linn) is composed of 84,000 cubes, each of which has four visible faces: red, blue, white and green. As these rotate, they form distinct patterns, images and letters in dozens of colors.

Hiroji Hamanaka, the president of Qlinn New York, said advertisements, news, time, weather forecasts and general information would be displayed on the board 22 hours a day. The parent concern, Nihon Advanced Products Company, already operates such boards in Asia, Europe and South America, but the one in Times Square, Mr. Hamanaka said, is the biggest.

MCI Communications Corporation is operating a huge digital display between 46th and 47th Streets that constantly ticks off the number of dollars that "America Is Saving By Using MCI Instead of A.T.&T."

ANOTHER sign is also being added to One Times Square, the former Times Tower, between 42d and 43d Street, which is already caked with advertisements for New York Newsday, Pepsi, Minolta and Sony.

In addition, a spot on the Embassy Suites hotel, Broadway and 47th Street, has been leased to Warner Brothers.

Many of the new signs result from zoning rules adopted in the 1980's. These were meant to perpetuate the "nature of the signs that gave character to Times Square," while allowing a "wide choice" in design and placement, said Lauren Otis, chief urban designer for the City Planning Department.

The rules apply to all new developments on Broadway and Seventh Avenue, between 43d and 50th Street. In simplified form, they establish the following formulas:

* At ground level, there must be at least one illuminated sign for each establishment on Seventh Avenue or Broadway.

* There must be illuminated signs with 12 square feet of surface for each linear foot of frontage on Seventh Avenue or Broadway, as well as a portion of any intersecting side street. These must be installed between the height of 10 and 60 feet.

* There must be "super" signs -- illuminated and animated -- with 50 square feet of surface for each linear foot of frontage. These must be installed between the height of 10 and 120 feet.

The most conspicuously unblazing towers are 1585 Broadway, at 47th Street, and 750 Seventh Avenue, at 49th Street, both developed by Solomon Equities.

Although signs are required at both sites, the regulation does not take force until a certificate of occupancy is requested for more than half of the new building.

"For 1585, we have leases out that will bring the building up to 60 percent, so we're working on that signage right now," said Jean W. Solomon, president of Solomon Equities. At 750 Seventh Avenue, she said, leases are out for 40 percent of the building, so the question of signs is also "of concern."

"THE signage we're displaying we want to be in keeping with the first-class quality of the buildings and the tenants," Mrs. Solomon said. "While we could have gone out and leased to outside advertisers, we've decided to have the input of our tenants and to use certain signage for tenant identification in the building." She said there was also room for building identification. Some signs will be supported by the vertical "fins" that hang over the Broadway sidewalk. There would be super signs above the first setback.

At 750 Seventh Avenue, the signs would be behind glass, so there would be no framework on the exterior. In addition, the spire at the top of the tower would be illuminated.

Perhaps the only place beside the Solomon buildings where restraint is deliberately being exercised is on the Seventh Avenue facade of the Ramada Renaissance. That is to be a plain, dark glass wall with a single sign for the hotel.

"The hotel guest's experience is one of the Seventh Avenue exposure, with a discrete entrance," said Bruce W. McIntosh, regional vice president of Ramada International Hotels and Resorts, and general manager of the Times Square hotel. "They don't get the impression of being in a building with signs hung all over it."

The sign itself is at an oblique angle to the guest rooms, which are further protected from it by double panes of tinted glass. "This isn't a cheap motel sign or an 'Eat at Joe's' sign," Mr. Katz said. "You won't hear it or see it."