If building gets ahead of demand or the economic recovery stalls, rents may fall and vacancies may increase, said Stuart Saft, a real estate attorney with Dewey & LeBoeuf LLP in New York. Without an influx of outside renters, tenants may simply shift from existing offices to newer ones, as has happened in previous construction booms.

"Businesses want the newest buildings," Saft said. "The problem is each time you build a building and seduce people over to it, then you empty out a Class A building, potentially making it a B building if you don't upgrade it."

Many companies also have been cutting back on space due to telecommuting and shifting employees from offices and cubicles to open floors, he said.

Gem Tower

After developer Gary Barnett's 750,000-square-foot International Gem Tower in the Diamond District opens next year, a new building isn't scheduled to be finished until 2013, when Minskoff's project and World Trade Center towers One and Four are completed, according to Cassidy Turley.

Developers stretching to make office projects happen are "making a good bet," said Douglas Hercher, who brokers capital for commercial-property deals as executive vice president and principal for Cushman & Wakefield Sonnenblick Goldman.

"They're looking at it and saying that, given where land prices are today and construction costs are today, we can build cheaper than we can buy," he said. "And we'll be well- positioned if we build brand new state-of-the-art office in great locations. When those buildings open in three to four years, we'll be sitting pretty."

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