Real  Estate   Record





AND BUILDERS' GUIDE.





Vol. XXYII.





NEW YORK, SATURDAY, APEIL 23, 1881





No. 684





Published Weekly by The

Real Estate Record Association





TERMS:
ONE TEAR, in advance   -   -   -   .

Commimications should be addressed to





$6.00





C. W. SWEET, 137 Broadway.

J. T. LINDSEY, Busmess Manager.





Allusion was made last week to a depart-
raent we have been xmnning for some six
weeks, entitled " Out Among the Builders,"
Certain of our subscribers, thinking a new
paper of that name had been published, sent
word to us to send it to them. The Rec¬
ord contains every possible item of real es¬
tate news. We employ a large corps of re¬
porters and nothing of any value can escape
their vigilance. This week will be found
the news, not only of this citv and Brook¬
lyn, but important ixiformation gleaned in
the annexed district, as well as in Yonkers,
If there is any part of the real estate or in¬
vesting field uncovered, we are willing to
go to any expense to furnish every piece of
information that the most exacting could
require. Suggestions from our subscribers
are in order.





That our citizens should desire clean streets
is very natural. But are not the advocates
of a change overdoing it, in giving currency
to absurd reports about the health of New
York? An utterly preposterous statement
was made in the papers that Asiatic cholera
had made its appearance, four well marked
cases ha'ving occurred. This was telegraphed
all over the country, to the injury of the
trade of this port. The daily papers un¬
doubtedly represent our best citizens, in de¬
siring some law passed that will make the
Mayor responsible for clean streets; but when
they fill their columns with stories of the
ravages made by typhus, diphtheria, cholera,
and kindred diseases, they are " fouling their
own nests," injuring their repute as sensible
organs of public opinion, and discrediting
the object they have in view. The business
men of the city should take some means of
letting the newspapers know that in their
efforts for some system that will keep the
city perfectly clean, they should not injure
the good reputation of the metropolis.

The inamigration is simply phenomenal.
On one day alone, during the past week, seven
thousand persons landed at this port. Every
vessel coming this way is filled to overflow¬
ing with steerage passengers. The engage¬
ments extend far into the harvest season, at
which time usually there is a falling ofl in
emigration. Counting accessions from
Canada and on the Pacific Coast, it is not
improbable that over 600,000 souls, from
emigration alone, will be added to our popu¬
lation during the coming year. Crops or no
crops, these tides of human beings will give
our raUroads all that they can do. This
emigration means the rapid settlement of
Minnesota, Dakota, Kansas and Northern
Texas.   The bears get the worst of it in the





long run in this country. A nation which
grows as rapidly as does om-s, from natural
causes as well as from emigration, constantly
improves in its business and in the valuation
of its real estate.





The out-going steamers are very full of
cabin passengers. More well-to-do Ameri¬
cans will visit Europe this year than ever
before. There are no vacant berths. There
wiU be a sharp demand for houses next fall
when these travellers return.





OFFICES TO LET.

The above sign is at present ominously
frequent all over the lower part of the city.
In Broadway from the City Hall to the
Battery such signs appear on every block ;
indeed, on some blocks the building that has
not such a sign is an exception to the rule.
There are also many offices to rent in Wall,
Broad and Nassau streets and Exchange
place, as well as the adjacent streets. It is
now very evident that the " boom " in office
rents during January and February was not
justified by the demand. People near the
exchanges became panic stricken lest they
might not find eligible quarters, and made
haste to secure their present offices at rents
which, had they waited until the present
time, would have procured them much better
accommodations.

The rage for erecting immense buildings
in the lower part of the city, if continued,
will have consequences that the projectors
of them do not now foresee. It does not
require much mathematical knowledge to be
able to predict after al! these great buildings
are finished, a possible plethora of offices.
Within a certain area immediately surround¬
ing the Stock Exchange this office business
cannot be overdone. The same is doubtless
true of the Produce, Cotton and Mining ex¬
changes. But it should be remembered that
buildings seven, eight and nine stories high,
and covering thousands of square feet, can
contain a very large number of offices. A
glance at New street, at Broad street in the
immediate neighborhood of the Stock Ex¬
change, shows numbers of buildings that
will sorae time be altered or rebuilt to accom¬
modate brokers. Now, there are probably
not over six hundred stock brokers who can
be called active, who really have daily busi¬
ness on the Stock Exchange. Add to these
the members of the Iilining Board, of whom
not more than one hundred and flfty are
active dealers, and we have something less
than eight hundred men who must have
acconamaodations io the immediate neighbor¬
hood of the exchanges. There are subsidiary
businesses that depend upon Stock Exchange
members to be also accommodated, such as
telegraphing, the restaurant and saloon busi¬
ness, and the like.

In the course of a couple of years, D. O.
Mills will have completed a magnificent
building at the corner of Broad street and
Exchange place, full of offices to accommo¬
date members of the Stock Exchanges. The
United Bank building -wiU soon be finished,
nd there are other buildings by the Astors





and others that, with those already in exist¬
ence, will fully supply all the demand for
offices near the Stock and Mining exchanges.

During periods of speculative activity,
such as the time of the petroleum excite¬
ment, or the mining fever about a year ago,
there are not a sufficient number of offices to
supply the demand. But such times form
no criterion as to the general course of
things. No doubt as the city grows in com¬
mercial importance there will be an increas¬
ing demand for accommodation by large com¬
mission houses and out-of-town firms and
companies that want to be represented in the
metropolis. But there is a present danger
that more offices will be supplied than the
demand in the immediate future will war¬
rant.

We would not be understood to say that
offices in very choice locations are not in
demand to-day. They are, and at very high
figures. The taste at present runs to the
newest and costliest buildings, and it is the
upper stories that are the first rented. The
demand for good offices " grows with what it
feeds upon," and the otvners of the older
buildings are forced by the competition of
their newer rivals to refit them with eleva¬
tors and all the modem conveniences. Such
buildings as the United Bank Building, the
Boreel Building, and those in their imme¬
diate neighborhood on Broadway, and also
the Drexel Building and 16 and 18 Wall
street, can be readily disposed of at high
rents, and it is this demand for fine offices
that calls for such erections as the Mills
Building. But capitalists would do well to
figure closely before giving orders for nine-
story buildings.





IMPROVEMENTS NEEDED.
West Side property holders say, that the
work of local improvements in that quarter
of the city, is not pushed with sufficient
energy. Complaint is made that Manhat¬
tan Square is neglected, to the detriment of
the lot owners in the immediate vicinity.
This is under the control of the Central Park
Commissioners, and there has been a good
deal of debate in the Board as to whv im¬
provements were not effected. Property in
the immediate vicinity, would advance ma¬
terially in value, were Manhattan Square to
be put iu proper shape. The work on
Morningside Park is also unnecessarily de¬
layed. The property holders in the imme¬
diate neighborhood have paid their assess¬
ments long since; the money is in the
Treasury, the State Legislature has ordered
the work done and yet, owing to the troubles
in the Central Park Board, nothing has beeu
done, to the detriment of property in the
neighborhood. The coming fall should see
the work on Manhattan Squarp, Morningside
Park and Mount Morris, well under way.
The street improvements on the West Side
shoula also be pushed forward with energy.
There are considerations of hralth which
should be regarded. There is always dan¬
ger of fever and ague when streets are being
opened and sewers built.   One of the rea-