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E.A.L Estate Record
AND BUILDERS' GUIDE.
Vol. XXIX.
NEW TOEK, SATURDAY, FEBEUARY 4,1882.
No. 725
Published Weekly by The
Real Estate Record Association
TERMS:
ONE YEAR, in advance.....$6.00
Communications should he addressed to
e. W. SWEET, 137 Broadway.
J. T. LINDSEY'Business Manager.
The great operators in the street have met
with a disappointment. Everything was
ready for a bull movement, when the news
came of the distm-bance on the Paris Bourse,
which caused the firsr. shipment of gold of
any large amount for nearly three years. In
view of the probability of still further dis¬
turbances abroad, with our imports increas
ing and our exports decreasing, there is
every evidence that we will continue to shij)
gold from this time forth. In face of
adverse circumstances the market is very
well sustained, but the outfide speculative
public would do well to leave the stock
market severely alone. This is no time for
the average operator to bet his money on
stocks, either on the long or short side.
Investors cannot do better than put their
money into real estate. People who have
plenty spare capital cannot do better than
purcliase down town business property,
while those who have limited means would
do well to pick up vacant lots on this island.
There is a larger margin in these two differ¬
ent kinds of property than in any other
descriiDtion of real estate.
The multiplication of huge buildings, and
the packing of business population in the
lower part of the city and along the princi-j
pal business thoroughfares, has created a
demand for restaurants, v/hich is something
unusual. Property holders have very gen¬
erally overlooked the necessity for eating
places in tho densely populated parts of the
city, and, as a consequence, down-town
places of refreshment are rai-ely what they
should be. The eating places are crowded,
incomodious, deficient in light and ventila¬
tion, and, as a consequence, eating is per¬
formed under circumstances which are un¬
comfortable and often unwholesome. It is
distasteful for a person who has a clean and
roomy dining hall at home, to be forced to
sit in a gas lit shop at a lunch table, where
he is packed so close that he really has no
elbow room. As the number of large busi¬
ness buildings is certain to increase, it
would pay for some enterprising real estate
owner to construct proper dining apart¬
ments. One is badly needed in the neigh¬
borhood of the Stock Exchange. The
restaurants on Broad and New streets,
where the brokers do their gorging (it can¬
not be called eating), are all shabby and in¬
convenient. Even Delmonico's, on the
ground floor, is a constant scene of noise
and confusion. The rich men of that neigh¬
borhood would very gladly pay a good price
for a lunching place which was convenient,
weU lighted and not overcrowded.
The Mills building has been found defect¬
ive by Superintendent Esterbrook's three
inspectors. They have so far disrovered
that there exists a serious flaw in one of the
columns that supports the building and sev¬
eral minor flaws in the basis of other
columns. The building will have to be shored
up. Everything wiU of course be done to
make it perfectly secure by it owner. It is
a noble pile and it would be a public disaster
if this fine structure could not be made per¬
fectly secure. We judge the constructors
were in too much of a hurry in preparing
the foundation and in building upon them
efore the ground settled.
DOWN-TOWN VALUES.
The great sales of last Tuesday developed
one fact which it would be well for i-eal
estate dealers to lay well to heart. Down¬
town property is in very active demand, and
it is clear the shrewdest investors believethat
values of business property have a very large
margin of profit. Such of our readers as have
kept files of The Real Estate Record, by
looking back, will see that we have always
held that the construction of the elevated
roads would not only put a stop to any up¬
town movement, but would concentrate
business down-town and immensely increase
values in the more active business quarters.
We have always held that two effects would
follow the establishment of the elevated
roads—one, a great advance in the price of
XDroperty in the old business locations, and
the other an equalizing of values in up-town
lots. In other words, the business tendency
would be centripetal and the residence tend¬
ency centrifugal. There will be no object in
building stores up-town while the business
localities in the lower part of the city can
be reached so easily, while at the same time
t^ere will be no object in paying a high
j)rice for a house and lot below the Central
Park when by going a couple of miles further
equally eligible property can be secured at
lower rates.
We have repeatedly called attention to
the great possibilities of business property
below the park. In no other spot on earth
is there such certainty of an immense busi¬
ness being done as on the lower end of the
peninsula that jets out into New York
bay. In every other city there is a chance
of growing in every direction, but business
in New York is confined on three sides to a
certain quarter. Already this limited space
is being filled with enormous buildings, and
wherever there are old edifices being torn
down, they are sure to be replaced by im¬
mense and many-storied structures. There
is no inheritance one can leave his children
so certain of a great increase as realty in
New York below the line of Chambers street.
It is there the great exchanges of the world
will eventually be located.
As showing the different estimates placed
upon property by two institutions, The
Real Estate Record of last week should be
consulted. Mr. James B. Hamilton purchased,
on January 17th, from the Germania Insur¬
ance Company, a house in Twenty-eighth
street for $33,000, and on the same day bor¬
rowed from the Union Dime Savings Institu¬
tion $31,000 as a mortgage on the property.
The purchaser must have either made a very
good bargain, or the institution lending have
secured a doubtful asset.
THAT FIRE.
The burning of the old Wo7^ld building is
a notable event. The ground is so valuable
that it will no doubt be immediately built
upon, and a structure will take its place that
will vie with the several superb buildings in
its neighborhood. As there are plenty of
mere offices to be supplied by the Tribune
Eugene Kelly and Vanderbilt structures, it
is not unlikely Mr. O. B. Potter will cater
for newspaper patronage. It is the natural
locale for newspaper publishing, and there
are plenty of weekly papers that would pay
handsomely for proper apartments. We
really think the office business has been
overdone down town. What is needed are
suites of rooms to show samples of manu¬
factured goods, or which can be used for
weekly and monthly publications and for
other business and light manufacturing pur¬
poses.
What a contrast is presented between the
complete destruction of the TForZcZ building
and the mere singing of the party wall
which divided it from the Times building.
What a lesson this fire ought to teach to
capitalists,[architects, builders and insurance
companies. To say nothing of the loss of
life, it is now seen that a fiimsily con-
striTCted structure is a needless waste of
capital, and that if a thing is worth doing
at all, it is worth doing well. The Times
company are fully justified in the greater
original cost of their building, in view of its
proved indestructibility. And here a dis¬
tinction should be made which it would be
well to bear in mind. A building may be in¬
combustible and yet not fireproof. Although
made of brick, stone and iron, the Florence
flat was the scene of a flre which destroyed
over $13,000 worth of property. Of course
the conflagration was confined to the rooms
in which it originated, but nevertheless
dwellers in fireproof flats were a good deal
astonished on reading the accounts of this
burning.
This fire emphasizes also the new danger
which has come|from the multiplication of
immense buildings. It' is often quite easy to
confine a fire to a house situated on a 25x100
feet lot; but when the edifice covers several
lots, and sometimes half a block, the fire
gets an immense sweep, and finds its way
up lo the draft of an elevator or along the
long corridors, in which there are inflam¬
mable material. As a matter of self-defence,
we may be forced to prevent the erection of
any large building which is at all combus¬
tible. The great height of our new down¬
town edifices makes them very dangerous in
case of a fire, owing to the impossibility of
any stream of water reaching the upper