May 24, 1913





RECORD  AND  GUIDE





1099





A Builder's  Miscalculation.

It is an elementary rule that the most im¬
portant factor in any business venture is ex¬
perience. Often shrewd business men. success¬
ful in their own business, are prone to forget
that in a different field they are novices. This
is peculiarly true in real estate, where for¬
tunes may be lost on a single mistake of judg¬
ment.

Here is an instance, as related by Spear &
Co., of 713 Broadway, that happens not infre¬
quently. A builder, who has been successful in
erecting and disposing of some uptown apart¬
ment houses, made up his mind to erect a loft
building in a favorable spot in the uptown loft
zone section.

In October or November, when his building
was half completed, brokers besieged him with
favorable offers. The renting men advised the
builder that these offers compared advantage¬
ously with the prevailing values in the neigh¬
borhood ; that inasmuch as his building would
not be completed before February, the induce¬
ment of a few months' free rent was lacking.
He was told that when the renting season drew
to a close he could not hope to command the
same rentals, as most of the desirable tenants
leased space months  in  advance.

He paid little attention to these men who
were in a position to understand conditions. As
the days advanced he found fewer applicants for
space. One month before the close of the rent¬
ing season he awoke to the fact that his build¬
ing was almost entirely unfilled. Frantic ap¬
peals to brokers elicited few responses. He be¬
gan to cut his rentals and offers that were
spurned two months before were eagerly ac¬
cepted. The close of the renting season found
liis building half filled at greatly reduced
figures from what he was led to expect at the
beginning. His mistake of judgment had cost
him from twenty-five to thirty thousand dollars.





BARGAIN   OPPORTUNITIES.





Reduced   Railroad   Fare.

By agreement with the Public Service Com¬
mission for the First District, the Long Island
Railroad during the week established a five-cent
fare on express trains between Flatbush avenue
and East New York stations. In order to get
the benefit of the five-cent rate passengers must
buy $1 worth of tickets which entitles them
to twenty rides. Conductors have been instructed
to accept these tickets on express trains, upon
which the fare heretofore has been ten cents.
There is not much difference in the service on
the express trains and the local trains for this
distance, but the fact that the fare was five
cents on the locals and ten cents on the ex¬
presses caused an unequal distribution of the
traffic and the undue crowding of local trains.
In arranging for the five-cent rate on the ex¬
press trains the commission hopes that condi¬
tions on the local trains will be relieved.





Improved Crosstown  Service.

The Public Service Commission for the First
District, upon the recommendation of Commis¬
sioner John E. Eustis, has dismis^^ed the
proceeding against the New York Railways
Company involving the service on the 86th
street crosstown line in Manhattan. The pro¬
ceeding was begun on complaints from Alder¬
man Gilmore and others against the short-lining
of cars at Second avenue, and in many cases
the collection of an extra fare from passengers
who desired to travel east of Second avenue.
During the hearings the company improved the
service so that 60 per cent, of the cars were
run through to the ferry and only 40 per cent,
were short-lined at Second avenue.

The commissioner also directed the company
to place an inspector at Second avenue to see
that all passengers in short-lined cars desiring
to go farther were transferred to through cars
without the payment of an additional fare. The
commission's inspection made after these im¬
provements were put into effect showed that
the service east of Second avenue was adequate,
and the hearing was closed with the under¬
standing that the present service will he con¬
tinued and that the short-lining of cars will
not be changed without the approval of the
commission.





B. R, T. Cars on the Queensboro Bridge.

Chief Engineer Alexander Johnson of the
Bridge Department thinks there is no occasion
for Long Island City manufacturers to worry
over the projected narrowing of the roadway
on the Queensboro Bridge to provide room for
the  B.  R.  T.  subway cars.

In an interview he said he was confident that
the roadway, after the protective railings are
put up to guard the railroad tracks, will be
wide enough to accommodate all the vehicular
traffic that will cross the bridge in the future.





Roof Garden for Hotel Marseilles.

The Hotel Marseilles, "the uptown hotel" at
Broadway and 103d street, has had such a suc¬
cessful season that Manager Charles A. Weir
is going to open a roof garden on the top of
the hotel, overlooking Riverside Drive and the
Hudson River on one side and upper Broadway
on the other. The garden will be decorated in
the usual manner, with latticework and foliage,
but several new ideas will be incorporated in
the   lighting  effects   and   the  service.





Condemnation Report.

Alfred J. Eno, Charles A. Hendrickson and
Wallace J. Hardgrove. the appraisers appointed
on March 5th by the Commissioners of the Sink¬
ing Fund, to appraise the value of the lands
owned hy the city, and lands owned by Have¬
meyer & Elder, lying between Vernon avenue
and the United States pier and bulkhead line,
and Nott avenue and 1.3th street. Borough of
Queens, which it is proposed to exchange, have
completed their report. The land owned by
Havemeyer & Elder is valued at $16,452.80, while
that of the city, $8,226.40.





Now Is the Time to Pick Up Properties

for a  Little  Money.—The  Morris

Park  Auction.

This is bargain time in New York real es¬
tate. Never before were there suoh opportunities
offered to pick up, for a little money, proper¬
ties which, according to the views of the most
experienced real estate men, would net their
buyers small fortunes in the course o." a very
few years. All city real estate except possibly
gilt-edged property bordering on the financij.1
district about WaU street or lying rear tbe
great Fifth avenue retail shopping section,
seems to be passing through a period of tem¬
porary depression which is causing prices to be
quoted lower than actual values in many cases
and is making opportunity for quick iuvest>rs
which is not likely to be equaled again in tnis
generation.

Nobody who can afford to hold property is
offering it at this time for bargain prices are
the best that can be expected. For this reason
those who know actual conditions are more than
surprised at the audacity of the Banking De¬
partment of New York State in ordering the
sale of the 3,019 lots in the Morris Park Race
Track, the largest lot offering ever held in this
or any other city, equaling as it does in vol¬
ume, the sales of three ordinary years. There
are those who freely predict that the sale will
result in the greatest slashing of values ever
recorded. There are others who say that the
sale should not be held at this time.

The proceeds from it are to be used in set¬
tling the claims of depositors in two defunct
banking institutions, and it is said that con¬
siderable more money could be obtained for the
property a year or two hence, when, it is ex¬
pected, the construction of new subways will
have revived the land boom that accompanied
the building of the present suhway.

The Banking Department, however, has been
so hard pressed for settlement by depositors who
want whatever they are to have of their original
deposits, that the sale must be held now though
the lots bring only a small part of their value.

It is just such occasions that have resulted in
the making of many of the real estate fortunes
of New York. As in the stock market, the wise
man in real estate buys when prices are lowest.
There are hundreds of men in all parts of the
country to-day who live in ease as the result
of having seen an opportunity to buy cheaply in
New York City and of having been able to grasp
the opportunity. One such man, the writer re¬
calls,  is B'rian G.  Hughes of New York.

Twenty years ago when Jere Johnson, Jr.,
was traveling about the outskirts of New York
selling lots at auction from an open carriage
drawn by a pair of white horses and accom¬
panied by a brass band, he happened one day
to strike into South Brooklyn, then a wilderness
without streets or any of the improvements the
city makes. Johnson had an order to sell about
3nu lots on what are now Fifth avenue, 64th,
C.jth and 66th streets. He had a small audi¬
ence, to whom he announced that the owner of
the property, being financially embarrassed, had
decided to sell the lots for what they would
bring, just as the Banking Department wiil
offer the lots in Morris Park. Brian G. Hughes
was one of those who believed in the future
growth of the City of New York. He was sure
that increasing population was straining to get
into that open territory, just as it is straining
now to get into Morris Park, but he never
dreamed that the small investment he made that
day would bring such return as it has.

Hughes paid .$90 each for a plot of about ten
lots on Fifth avenue from 64th to 65th streets.
As soon as he had taken title to them, he erected
a sign on them saying "Not for Sale, B. G.
Hughes." Such opportunities as that offered to
Hughes are not uncommon in New York real
estate, but when they are offered, they must be
acted upon quickly. In all businesses where a
dollar's worth is offered for fifty cents com¬
paratively few buyers are to he had, for almost
everyone "smells a rat," It is on such occa¬
sions that skilful men put away opportunties to
make fortunes while the few who are really wise
and are willing to back up their convictions
after investigation, make great profits.

Never before in the history of New York City
have circumstances combined in such manner to
favor small investors as they have in connection
with lots in Morris Park. At the very poorest
selling that anyone remembers 3.019 lots are to
be sold. This means that, should each buyer
take two lots, 1,500 buyers would be necessary
to clean up the property at a time when there
are no buyers for the best real estate New York
has to offer. In former years, the purchases of
500 lot buyers—purchases made at intervals
throughout a whole year—exhausted the funds
available for investment. What, then, the ques¬
tion is being asked, will happen when the nor¬
mal volume of money seeks investment at Mor¬
ris Park? The only answer is that buj'ers will
have a field day and that they may expect
quicker and larger profits from their purchases
than such investors ever have made.





New   York's   Greatness.

Chicago is next to New York in magnitude
and importance as a business center, but just
how close it is to the greatest city on this side
of the Atlantic Ocean, or rather, how much
greater New York is in comparison, may he
surmised from the fact that in the four years
ending in 1910 the money expended here on new
buildings was more than the assessed value of
the entire Western city. In these four years
more than $380,000,000 was put into new con¬
struction in Manhattan Borough alone. The
assessed value of the Windy City in 1910 was
$344,000,000, or $40,000,000 less than the cost
of a four-years' building campaign in Man¬
hattan. The difference, it was estimated at the
time, was equal to the realty value of a town
the size of Lawrence, Mass.. or Portland, the
chief city of Maine. Last year's building oper¬
ations in Manhattan, The Bronx, Brooklyn and
Queens totaled more than $205,000.000.—New
York Sun.





ESTABLISHED 1879





William P. Rae Co.

Main OflBce
180 MONTAGUE STREET

Uptown Branch
400 Nostrand Av., adj. Gates Av.





MANAGERS

APPRAISERS

AUCTIONEERS

BROOKLYN AND QUEENS





WE REPRESENT

JAMAICA          HILLCREST

SEA GATE      N. Y. HARBOR

OFFICE ON EACH PROPERTY





Firm Established 1853





John B Fickllng
President





Albert A. Watts
Vice-Pres. & Treas.





DAVENPORT

REAL ESTATE CO.

HILL SECTION

SPECIALISTS

Cor. Fuiton and S. Oxford Sts.
BROOKLYN                      NEW YORK

TELEPHONE. PROSPECT 2978





Members
Brooklyn Board of Real Estate Brokers

BROOKLYN
ESTATE MANAGERS

CHAS. L. GILBERT, President

NOAH CLARK, Inc.

REAL ESTATE
INSURANCE

Water Fronts, Factory Sites, Appraisals

Main Office

837 Manhattan Avenue

Branches

545 Morgan Avenue          753 Nostrand Avenue

BROOKLYN, N. Y.





FOB. NEARLY  HALF A  CCNTURY

we have been selling, buying, renting, manag¬
ing and appraising real estate. We have seen
competitors come and go while we have pro¬
gressed. There's a reason. Let us serve you
and you will discover the reason.

BULKLEY 4 HORTON CO.

Phone:
Bedford 5400





414 Myrtle Ave., near Clinton Ave.
585 Noslrand Ave., near Dean St.





Officers and Directors of the
Brooklyn Board of

Real Estate Brokers







DE HART BEROEN    -     -
THOMAS HOVENDEN    -
WILLIAM H. SMITH
EUGENE J. GRANT

DIRECTORS

VeHart Bergen

Isaac Cortelyou
William P. Rae
Tkoinns Hovenden
Frank H. Tyler
Wm. Q. Morrisey
C. 0. Mollenhauer





President

Vice-President

Treasurer

Secretary





Howard O. Pyle
Eugene J. Grant
John F. Janies
David Porter
A. J.   Waldron
F. B. Sn(no
William H. Smith





Fenwick B. Small

DIRECTORS EX-OPnCIO

John Pullman                  Arthur B. Oritman