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Real Estate Record
AND BUILDERS^ GUIDE.
Vol. XXIX.
NEW YOEK, SATUEDAY, MAECH 11. 1882,
No. 730
Published Weekly by The
Real Estate Record Association
TERMS:
0]^E ¥EiR, in adrance.....$6.00
Communications should be addressed to
C. W. SWEET, 131 Broadway
J. T. LINDSEY, Business Manager.
The stock market lias a very sick look, and
there is nothing in the immediate future to
give any courage to the bulls. A great war
is threatening Europe, and the semi-panic
on the London stock market wUl be felt
here unless a change takes place. Ulti¬
mately a European war would be a benetit
to this country, but its immediate effect
would be to cause a drain of gold and the
flooding of our market with foreign goods.
A threatened war would be a good thing for
the grain and provision trade, but it would
lower the price of cotton. In time it would
stimulate certain lines of manufacturing in
this country, as well as shipbuilding.
The bullion price of silver becomes stiffer
as the time approaches for the meeting of
the Paris Monetary Conference. A great
meeting of business men was held in London
recently to advocate bi-metalism. Minister
Lowell as well as the ministers df some six
other nations were present, and letters of
sympathy were read from the ministers of
Germany and France, and Mr. Low, Pres¬
ident of the Bank of England, spoke in favor
of bi-metalism, together with several influ¬
ential members of Parliament. Should bi-
metalism be established, that is a ratio
between silver and gold at which each could
be freely coined, it would result in the
enhancement of prices of all commodities.
The time has come when the stockholders
of the Metropolitan Elevated must make up
their minds as to whether they will accept
the proposition of the Manhattan Company,
which in effect puts them in the same posi¬
tion as the shareholders of the New York
Elevated. If they accept, they get 6
per cent., which is to be cumulative. As
the New York Elevated Company does the
larger business on a much shorter line of
road, the offer of the same guarantee to the
one company as to the other, is not unfair
on its face or in fact. This is a matter
which each shareholder should judge for
himself, without reference to the interests of
either Mr. Field or Mr, Kneeland. A security
which pays 6 per cent, in these troublesome
times, on a popular and growing railway
system, is not to be rejected thoughtlessly.
Going to law is an exciting occupation, but
it is expensive. Possession is nine points of
the law anyway, and good dividends are in
any event better than large lawyers' bills.
»^i ♦ ^»
The Second Avenue Horse-Car Railway
Company have, it is reported, made a con¬
tract for building a bridge over the Harlem
lliver on the Second Avenue. This is to be
done under an old charter which hag never
been repealed. The bridge is to accommo¬
date horse-cars and foot-passengers, also an
elevated track for the use of whatever rail¬
way companies desire to enter the city by
that route.
THE BROOKLYN BRIDGE AND NEW
YORK REALTY.
When ex-Controller John Kelly was in
power he objected to paying any more money
for constructing the Brooklyn bridge, on the
ground that it was openmg a new way for
people to leave New York, and there is a
very general suspicion that the immediate
effect of the opening of the bridge will be
to deplete New York and beneflt Brooklyn—
that is, taking it for granted that some
system of rapid transit will be put in opera¬
tion in connection with the',bridge. That
Brooklyn residence property may be benefited
by the completion of this great work is not
improbable ; but beyond all peradventure
the ultimate effect will be to largely enhance
the value of down-town real estate in New
York. Business stores flourish wherever
there is a throng of population. The milhons
who will use the bridge wiU make their main
purchases hereafter on the New York side.
It should be borne in mind that the passen¬
ger who takes his seat in the car on the New
York side is bound for the station nearest
his residence in Brooklyn ; but when he
takes his seat in the Brooklyn car for the
New York side, he expects to walk from the
Chatham street depot to his oflSce or other
place of business. The vast crowds which
now throng the principal business streets be,,
low Chambers street will be swollen enor¬
mously by the additions to our every-day
population, which will be made by the open-
ing of the Brooklyn bridge. All this will
have effects that have not as yet been thought
out by the majority of real estate in'
vestors. There wUl be a greater demand for
oflices as a matter of course, also for build¬
ings suitable for general business purposes,
and there also will be developed an extraor¬
dinary demand for retail stores. Much of
the business now done in Fulton street,
Brooklyn, will be transferred to this city,
for men will purchase in the attractive stores
near their places]of business. Women,'also,
finding access to New York very easy, will
make their ""purchases here. If the Sixth
avenue and I^Fourteenth street storekeepers
are wise, they will Endeavor to establish a
crosstown connection by way of ^Chambers
street by means of the Metropolitan elevated
road and the cars which would run over the
bridge. If the time should come when a
lady can take a seat in a car at the depot
near her residence in Brooklyn and be con¬
veyed, without any change of car, direct to
any part of Sixth avenue, the Brooklyn
stores will lose their best custom, and an
immense addition will be made to the re¬
tail traffic of the West Side so far as regards
dry-goods, lingerie and the like. Thejast tide
of Brooklyn population, mainly men, which
win'pour out of the depot in Chatham street,
must of necessity enhance the value of
property in that neighborhood, especially for
retail business. There will be a heavy de¬
mand for eating houses, liquor saloons,
tailors, hatters and other retail stores; in
short, the bridge will intensify the concen¬
tration of business in certain quarters of the
city, first begun by the elevated roads. This
is why there is such an eager demand for
down-town business property by far-seeing
capitalists. This is one of the influeaces at
work making Sixth avenue, Fourteenth and
Twenty-third street business property so
stiff in price. A well-known hosiery store
which, before the'elevated roads were con¬
structed, did a'very^arge business in Broad¬
way near Union square, is about to be re»
moved to the lower part of the city, the
proprietor giving as a reason that his best
customers now pass him by on the elevated
roads. It does not pay them to walk a
couple of blocks from the elevated station
for the sake of buying a few shirts, drawers
or neckties. They purchase what they can
get near the down-town depots of the
elevated roads and have the parcels sent
home.
Of course, Brooklyn will be benefitted, but
in a different way. The indisposition to
purchase residences in New York which seU
at from $15,000 to $30,000, is in a great part
due to the fact that would-be investors in
that kind of property are aware that in a few
years time'they will have a chance to pur*
chase houses^^quite as convenient for them at
two-thirds the price. Brooklyn has many
advantages for residence purposes. It has a
beautiful park, fine drives and ready access
in summer time to Coney Island. In time,
residents of houses near the Brooklyn park
can do business in New York and avail them¬
selves of its great dry-goods establishments
as readily as the occupants of New York
homes above Fifty-ninth street. We rather
expect, therefore, to see an equalization of
prices between cheap residence property in
New York and the same description of houses
in Brooklyn. There ought, therefore, to be
money in well-located Brooklyn real estate.
The Hubert Home Co-operative Associa*
tions seem to be doing a flourishing busi¬
ness. The Rembrandt is fully occupied ; a
fine building on Fifty-ninth street, opposite
the park, is nearing completion, and the edi¬
fices in Madison square. Fifty-fourth street, aa
well as the one in Fifth avenue opposite St.
Thomas Church are well under way. Still
another is talked of on Eighth avenue not
far from Eighty-third street. These struct¬
ures, it will be remembered, are owned by
associates, each of whom has a property in
one or more of the suites of rooms. Instead
of purchasinjg a house, the co-operator buys
an apartment Avhich may cost him any-
wherefrom $10,000 to $50,000. The taxes,
insurance, expense of lighting and heating,
janitor and elevator boy are assessed at an
equitable rate upon all the co-operators»
Quite a furor has been developed for this
kind of investment, but old-fashioned people
, say that perhaps it will be wise to see them