Daily News from New York, New York • 165

The Ticker DOW JONES 320.17 10,131.41 1 i -1 I i I i i 1 DMfteir ftta 1 124.01 4,582.62 KErTH BEDFORD It's not on Broadway or even 42nd Street but 230 W. 41st is still hoping to capture the new glamour of Times Square. Times Square, the Reuters building, under construction on 7th Avenue between 42nd and 43rd streets; 4 Times Square, the Conde Nast building, at 42nd Street and Broadway; 5 Times Square, the Ernst Young building, under construction on 7th Avenue between 41st and 42 nd streets; and 7 Times Square, the working name of a proposed tower over the Port Authority Bus Terminal. Real estate developer Boston Properties, run by Daily News chairman and co-publisher Mortimer B. Zuckerman, also is putting up a tower bounded by 41st and 42nd streets, between 7th Avenue and Broadway.

"We haven't picked a number yet," said Robert Selsam, a senior vice president at Boston Properties. "But it will be a Times Square address." ti (sfo ssL T' i "A Zm. 4 i i By DANIELLE REED DAILY NEWS BUSINESS WRITER If you thought letterhead with "Park Avenue" or "Central Park West" was hot, try Times Square. The once-infamous address has become a gold standard in the business world, and developers are clamoring to officially call Times Square home. There are now seven office towers in the neighborhood including ones under construction or still being planned that boast Times Square up from just two in 1993.

"The branding of Times Square has come full circle," said Peter Kohlmann of the Times Square Business Improvement District. "A few years ago, people didn't even want to say they were building in Times Square. They were calling it Midtown West," Kohlmann said. Actually asking the city for a Times Square address might have been a real estate death sentence a decade ago, when the square was the center of a sketchy area riddled with drugs and pornography. In those King" days, most businesses kept their avenue addresses.

Those days are long gone. In fact, Kevin Wang, the new owner of a building outside the immediate Times Square area, at 41st Street between 7th and NASDAQ toft BUDD WILLIAMS DAILY NEWS Nast entrance at 4 Times Across the street from Wang's building, there's a 44-floor, 444-room Hilton hotel under construction, destined to become the Hilton Times Square. "Times Square is great now," said a Hilton spokeswoman. "We absolutely want to have a presence there." Other additions to the Times Square bandwagon include 3 has landed rap stars Snoop "The EMI and the Zomba deal are exclusive for our custom CD service," Lieberman said. "But they are not exclusive for digital downloads.

The Death Row deal is exclusive both for the custom CD service and the download service." Musicmaker.com will have the right to "a first look" at future releases from Death Row, in addition to the rights to specific older songs by Dr. Dre, Snoop Doggy Dogg, Tupac Shakur and others. SEC says fund investors should be told of tax bite Mutual fund investors would get more information about the impact of taxes on their portfolios under legislation moving in Congress and new rules proposed yesterday by the Securities and Exchange Commission. An estimated 2.5 of an average stock fund's return is now lost to taxes, but many people aren't aware of the bite. "Taxes are one of the most significant costs of investing in mutual funds," SEC chairman Arthur Levitt said.

Pru gets ruling after raid Prudential Securities won a temporary court order blocking rival Credit Suisse First Boston from hiring more employees of its asset-backed securities group. In the last four days, CSFB has hired away the Prudential unit's head, Joseph Donovan, and at least eight other executives. Donovan resigned without notice Saturday and then Monday, eight others resigned, allegedly recruited to CSFB by Donovan. "We're seeking monetary damages from First Boston and the individuals," said a Prudential spokeswoman. U.S.

official is scammed Of all the credit card numbers in all the world, a thief stole one belonging to a top regulator of the credit card industry. The chairman of the Federal Trade Commission said yesterday someone stole his official government credit card number in 1998 and ran up charges buying items from catalogs. Robert Pitofsky, who recounted the experience at a national conference on identity theft, said he "felt violated" after he caught the disputed charges after reviewing the billing statement from his FTC-issued credit card. He said the charges were eliminated after he notified the card issuer. Sears' Martinez to retire Sears chairman end CEO Arthur Martinez will retire by year-end, just as the second-largest U.S.

retailer started to show signs of reviving profit growth. Sears said it hired an executive search firm to seek successors. Martinez, 60, will help with i le search. He's credited with boosting profits and the company's stock after joining Sears in 1992. The turnaround started to unravel in recent years, though, as fast-growing competitors such as Target and Kohl's took away shoppers.

Martinez recently starting laying out plans to improve Sears' stores and to use the Internet to better connect with customers and suppliers. "I think we need someone who can approach today's business problems with a clear set of today's eyes," Martinez said. Arco in $7B sale Atlantic Richfield agreed to sell its Alaskan oil fields to Phillips Petroleum for as much as $7 billion to win clearance from U.S. antitrust regulators for its buyout by BP Amoco. The Federal Trade Commission said it will ask for postponement of a hearing Monday on its lawsuit to block the $33 billion buyout.

Officials have said they would clear the bid if a suitable buyer were found for the Alaskan fields. GDeath Kou in download deal Flashy Conde 8th avenues, said he hopes to get approval to rename the property 1 1 Times Square at 230 W. 41st St. "I think having a Times Square address is beneficial," Wang said, noting that while the 20-story building is not technically in Times Square, it falls within the Times Square Redevelopment District. I Musicmaker.com Doggy Dog (I-) and Dr.

Dre. "The Death Row songs that we now have the rights to are not just some of the most popular rap songs," said Larry Lieber-man, Musicmaker.com's president of global marketing. "They were important pop songs. It strengthens our library of catalog items, which is where we want to be strongest," he said. The Death Row deal has greater exclusivity than the EMI or Zomba deals.

2 trillion in housing aid Fannie Mae, the largest U.S. mortgage financier, said it plans to provide $2 trillion over the next decade and focus on helping minorities, single-mother families and others whose ability to buy homes has lagged the general population. The company, which buys mortgages from bank lenders and resells them as securities to investors, announced the plan as it's about to complete a similar, $1 trillion seven-year commitment ahead of schedule. The new program aims to help more than 18 million families, including those looking for starter homes and new immigrants. "Many Americans have enjoyed substantial financial gains in our current era of prosperity, but in homeownership, there re- mains a significant divide be- tween the 'haves' and the 1 'haven't said Franklin Raines, Fannie Mae chairman.

In 1999, 73 of whites owned homes, much higher than the 47 rate for minorities. Bloomberg Rap label links with Web firm By DEREK CANEY REUTERS Digital music downloading site Musicmaker.com said yesterday it signed an exclusive three-year licensing agreement with rap music label Death Row Records, home of Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dog. Musicmaker.com has deals with such labels as EMI Recorded Music and Zomba Music Group, which contribute to its library of 200,000 songs that users can download onto their personal computers for a fee. It also markets customized compact discs for which customers choose the songs from its library.

The company, which has rights to works by Britney Spears, Miles Davis, Shania Twain and many others, focuses on catalog songs, older tunes that are no longer hits but still sell in modest numbers..