Real Estate Record
AND BUILDERS' GUIDE.
YoL. XXYI.
NEW YOEK, SATUEDAT, JULY 10, 1880.
No. 643
Published Weekly by
%\t %ml ^sMt %UQxti Association,
TERMS.
ONE YEAR, in advance....SIO.OO.
Communications should be addressed to
C. W. SW^EET.
No. 137 Broadway
THE LATEST VALUATION OP NEW YORK
REAL ESTATE.
The assessment rolls presented to the Board of
Supervisors, on Monday last, increase the valua¬
tion of real estate iu the city and c(Juuty of New
York by $24,437,310. As there will be little, if any,
change from the figures submitted by the Commis¬
sioners of Taxes, we risk nothing in accepting
their figures as the official exhibit of the value of
realty in the twenty-four wards of the city of New
York. It is evident, as shown by the table printed
elsewhere, and as explained in these columns only
a few weeks ago, in reply to a communication from
a down-town property-owner, that valuations in
the Seventh and Thirteenth wards have decreased*
These localities are, for the time being in a transi¬
tory state; property there is dormant, and the
time has not yet arrived for enquiry in regard to
the various sites they offer for manufacturing pur¬
poses. When that demand sets in, as surely it
will, the region covered by Market, Rutgers, Attor¬
ney, Ridge, Pitt, Willett, Lewis and Goerck streets
will no longer show a decrease of value. In so far
the commissioners taking an actual survey of the
condition of our city have acted in accordance
with a judgment with which no expert can find
fault. But how is it with the other down-town
wards? The increase in valuation in the First
ward is only $906,000, and in the Third ward
$395,250, And yet, at no previous time during the
past ten years has the business property held for
investment, and paying magnificent returns, had
such a start as it received during the past twelve
months. Improvements that would have been
ridiculed, five years ago, have been started below
the Post Office, a.l the way down to the Battery,
around and along Broadway and Wall street, fixing
a permanency for that centre far in excess of any
anticipations entertained by the tax commissioners
a few years ago. The Boreel building alone, at 115
Broadway, without naming the magnificent bank
building now going up on the corner of Wall
street and Broadway, the beautiful office building
now being constructed on the corner of Exchange
place and Hanover street by the Post estate, the
improvementa in Wall street proper by insurance
companies and other firms, the extension of the
Stock Exchange, denoting its permanency as to a
future abode, asiie of the completion of the Coal
and Iron Exchange and the Smith building in
Courtlandt street, and many other important
changes in the lower, part of Broadway and cross
streets ; all these have, within the last eighteen
months, given a permanency to that section of
the^city, of which investors have well known how
to take advantage. It does not show, on the part
ot the tax commiasioners—who pride themselves
upon heing thoroughly posted as to market values
—a sharp or shrewd insight into the spots whence
are derived the actual increased returns by invest¬
ors. They have, for instance, increased the valua¬
tion of Nineteenth ward property to the extent of
ten millions of dollars, because the Vanderbilts
have chosen to select their habitations in the Fif ih
avenue, and hence, as a tax commissioner stated
the other day to a reporter, the increase there
is simply owing to the influx of the Vanderbilt
family. Real estate has not risen in value, even
along Fifth avenue, owing to the movements of the
Vanderbilts, at the ratio in which it is " bulled"
by the tax commissioners, but Nineteenth ward
property has been heretofore assessed altogether
too low considering the enormous amount of im¬
provement. The conclusions arrived at by the
Commissioners may be right, but the reason for
arriving at these conclusions is simply ridiculous.
The fault is, they have assessed it in accordance
with their own notions of values, but not in accord¬
ance with strict market values. The owners of
numerous new buildings erected in the Nineteenth
ward, will find that it is rather an expensive piece
of business to be located in a section that is to be
controlled by the Vanderbilt status.
As to Twelfth ward property, located most north
of Central Park, the increase seems to be justified
by the facts, as whole tracts of vacant lots have
been improved there duiing the past twelve
months. But the increase of nearly one million in
the Twenty-first ward, where there has been little
but speculative dealing, and but little improvement,
ought not to have been countenanced by the com¬
missioners. A careful study of the columns of
The Real Estate Recohd would have kept the
commissioners abreast of the real estate market,
and, while we do not take exception in the least to
the total increase of valuation on Manhattan
Island, we simply desire to express our astonish¬
ment that the commissioners', with the data ready
at han 1, and basing their assessments upon actual
"market prices," made their valuations in the
various wards at figures which will make the most
docile taxpayer despair that the definition of the
word *' equalization" will ever be understood by
officials in its true sense. The way this table is
made up, is "equalization" in accordance with
common street talk, and in pursuance of sensation
articles on real estate published in the daily papers.
Whenever it shall be understood in the tax office
that no sensation article can ever affect values of
realty, and that no "boom " will ever control the
whole of Manhattan Island, but only in certain
localities, then, and then only, will we have assess¬
ment rolls showing, indeed, true equalization of
taxes in the twenty-four wards of Netr York city.
The determination of owners of ocean steam¬
ship lines to locate their business above Twenty-
third street, along the North River, will give a fresh
impetus to a sorely neglected portion of the city.
The Dock Commissioners, anxious to accommodate
the various steamship lines, are already preparing
plans for the construction of seven piers, which
will command a yearly rental of $20,000 each. If
these piers were ready now, they could be rented
without difficulty, as all the owners of ocean
lines now see plainly that they can handle passen¬
gers and freight to a greater advantage on this
side of the Hudson than they coqW on the Jersey
or Brooklyn shore. When these piers are all com¬
pleted, of course that section of West street will
present a contrast to the present state of alfairs,
such as will be thoroughly relished by all property-
owners.
HAVE STOCKHOLDERS ANY RIGHTS
WHICH JOURNALS OUGHT TO RESPECT.
That demagogism is not confined to politicians
is evident by the manner in which the leading
daily journals again urge upon the elevated
roads the adoption of the five cent fare rule.
This question vf&s discussed in all its bearings,
fully and elaborately, during the recent session
of the Legislature. The Rea'l. Estate Record
then maintained that the adoption of this rule, in
the absence of any accurate data in regard to the
cost of maintenance and the various improve¬
ments yet to be made all along the East, as well
as the West Side lines, would be ruinous to the
stockholders. We desist to-day from repeating
the various arguments then set forth in these
columns, which were endorsed by legislative
action, but we wish to ask those editors who
clamor for five cent fares, whether they think
that the capitalists have any rights at all in the
premises. They may prate all they please about
the magnificent franchises conferred upon these
corporations, but how and in what manner do
these franchises compare to the great and profit¬
able boon conferred upon New York City by
these elevated corporations. Why did those
public spirited men, who for years talked about
"rapid transit," not put their hands in their
pockets and construct a road—that has given life
and activity to the property interest of New
York, that has brought back thousands of citizens
to our island, heretofore residents of Brooklyn
and New Jersey, that has thrown a veritable
calcium light upon the hitherto unexplored West
Side, and has kept the temper of merchants and
business men in a mood free from vexation, such as
was provoked by the hanging on to straps in the
horse cars, and led to subsequent irritations in
business transactions not easily to be computed.
Why, why, we ask, was all this not done by
others ? The grand franchise of which we he&r
so much was open to them, as well as to the pres¬
ent stockholders of the elevated road. Why did
they not put their hands in their pockets and
build, for instance, the magnificent Metropolitan
Road? The stockholders who now resist the
clamors, not of the people but of those would-be
leaders of public opinion, occupying temporarily
editorial chairs, did put their hands in their
pockets. They have paid in their cash and have
done New York City great service, have helped
its business, improved its waste property and in¬
fused life where heretofore there was lethargy.
They are men of business, however, satisfied, it
is true, with their investment; but they also de¬
mand an opportunity to see how this is all going
to work. The great public is satisfied to pay ten
cents from the Battery to the Harlem River.
The theoretical editors of the daily press, how¬
ever, simply to keep up a mere sensation, are
anxious to fan a flame, for which, just now, there
exists no fuel.