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August 31, 1907.
RECORD AJSTD GUIDE
321
:H2Lí;^1863.
De^TEB V> Rf*J- ESTATE.BuiLDIĩfe A,^ITEeTlJRE .KoUSEĩfOUl DEŨQfĩAHOll,
BlfSDfeSB AftoTHErøS OF'GEjto^l Ir/'^R.ESl..
PRICE PER YEAR IN ADVANCE EIGHT DOLLARS
Comjnunications should be addressed to
C. W. SWEET
VubUshed EVerg Saturday
By THE RECORD AND GUIDE CO.
President, CLINTON W. SWEET Treasurer, P. W. DODGE
Vlee-Pres. & Genl, Mgr,, H. W. DESMOND Seeretary, F. T. MILLER
Nos. 11 to 15 East 34íh Street, New York City
(Telephone, Madison Square, 4430 to 4433,)
"Entered at the Post Offiee at Ncto York, N. Y,, as secoii<l-cla.ía inattcr."
Copyrighted. 1907. by The Record & Guide Co,
^VoI. LXXX,
AUGUST 31, 1907.
No. 2059,
INDEX TO DEPARTMBNTS.
Advertising Section.
Page. Page.
Cement ......................xvi Lumber .....................xx
Clay Products ...............xvii Machinery ...................vi
Constilting Engineers ........xv Metal Work ...............xiv
Contractors and Buildera .....iv Quick Job Directory ..........xx
E'lectrical Interests ..........vii Real Estate ..................ix
Fîreproofing ..................ii Roofers & Rooflng Materials. .vii
Granite ...................xviii Stone ....................xviii
Iron and Steel ............viii Wood Produ'cts ..............xxĩ
THE approaeh of the Fal! has done nothíng as yet to
awaken the real estate market to lîfe. Apart from a
slightly increased demand for prlvate houses, there are no
indications of any approaching activity; and, indeed, it
â– would be foolish to expect anything of the kind. General
conditions, as well as ioeal conditions, conspire to forbid it.
The coming business year is obviously destined to be one of
â– transition, during â– which the methods and eentres of real
estate activity, as well as the prevailing level of prices, wilĩ
be adjusting themselves to a new set of uuderlying condi-
tîons. Business of all kinds all over the country wiU prob-
ably undergo a siow process of coucentration and consolida-
tion; It is absolutely necessary that a certain araount of
capital should be released from the pressure of current en-
gagements, and be allowed to seek a more stable and safer
method of employment. Iê this process is acconipanied by
any consideĩ-able dimiuution of business, there will be eom-
pensations in a lower scale of expenditure, and a more eco-
nomical method of operation, But while it is taking ,piace
real estate and buiĩding wiU probably feel the effects of the
readjustment, more than many other branches of busiuess,
just as it will subsequently proflt more largely from its com-
pletion, Just at present speculative operations in real estate
are embarrassed by the difíiculty of borrowing money, and
the inyestment demand by the low prices at which good se-
eurities are selling, When, however, money becomes easier
and securities have gone back to a more normal and less
profltable level, real estate and building will immediately
feel the advantages of the change. In. the meantime local
conditions make also for dulness. The effeet of these transit
improvements tha.t are soon to be completed has already
been discounted, and there are no new ones proposed, upon
whieh speculative buyíng can be based. The dtUness has not
been accompanied by any concessions in prices, which would
tempt buyers out of their inertia. On the other hand the
dulness shows no tendency to hecome weakness. Consider-
ing the large diminution of activity which has .taken pĩace
durĩng the past year, there has been comparatively little
liquidation. The weak points in the rental situatĩon tend to
improve rather than to become worse and it is probable that
prices will be flrmly held during the coming winter, All
thjs assumes, of course, a gradual process of readjustment in
the general business situation, A siidden and severe con-
traction 'would change conditions radically and might force
liquîdation, but as yet such a eontraction is not foreshad-
owed.
THE man who wouĩd have predicted twenty years ago
that New York City would be obliged to pay four and
one-half per cent. interest in order to sell its bonds above
par would have been considered out ot hĩs mind. At that
time New York could bprrow at about three per cent,, and
had as little difflculty în âoating its loans on that.basis as
would the Federal government. The necessity of paying
four and one-half per cent. interest would have been consid-
ered equivalent to a confession that the cíty was adopting
a policy of financial extravagance .which had severely com-
promised its credit. Yet the city of New York is obliged to
pay four.and one-half per cent. in spite of the fact that its
financial situaíion was at bottom ne'ver sounder than it is
at present. New York is very much better and more eSi-
cieutly governed than it was twenty years ago. During
this whole period it has been carefully nourishing its re-
sources in the way of franchises and the like, instead of
recklessly giving them away. Its assets have enormously
increased, and the value of its real estate alone is probably
equal to the value of the real estate owned by the Federal
government. Its population has been increasing as rapidiy
as ever and its business in even higher proportions. Its
bond is intrinsically Just as good, if not better, than it was
twenty years ago, and yet the interest charges npon them
have become half again as much. The reason, of course,
is that the city has adopted a polîcy of extensive and costly
mnnicipal improveraents at the very time when similar im-
provements in every part of the country were straining the
supply of loanable capital. These improvements were ne-
cessitated by the fact of consolidation, and there can be uo
doubt that the constant weakening of the city's credit has
been one resuÄ©t o£ eonsolidation, The credit of the smaller
cities which were annexed to the old New York was much
iuferior to that of Manhattan Island, and the responsibilities
placed upon the greater New York were so onerous that its
credit suffered somewhat from the very beginning, and it
has continued to suffer, because the task of providing for
the present and future needs of the consolidated city ne-
cessitated the issue of more bonds than the market could
conveniently take. It may be conSdently predicted, how-
ever, that the city of New York will not again be obliged
to pay over four per cent. for its money. Its needs are
supplied for a year, and at the end of that time money will
again be comparatively cheap. Within two years it is prob-
able that the city wi!l be able to fioat three and one-half
per cent. stock at par.
THE leasing of the Hotel Normandie for business pur-
poses calls attention once raore to the inevitable fate
which is awaiting the o!d Broadway hotels. One after an-
other they are getting into trouble and are being torn down
or reconstructed. Many of them are continued as hotels
after they fail to make money, because of the difBcuIty and
expense of converting them to other uses, but in the course
of time they must all either be remodelled for business pur-
poses or else destroyed. They cannot compete with hotels
like the Knickerbocker and the Astor, and the expensive
locations thej' occupy prevent them from being continued
v/ith a very cheap scale of prices. In appointments and
conveniences, both for the guests and the management, they
do not compare with many of the hotels which of late
years have been erected on the side streets. The conditions
of successfu! hotel management have altered radically in
New Ybrk since 1900, and have rendered obsolete many
buildings which had not Ä©asted even the customary period
of twenty-flve years. The suecess of the new tenant in
sub-Ietting the reconstructed Hotel Normandie wilĩ be
watclied with interest, The portion of Broadway in which
it is situated has been very backward in its development.
Dnring the radica! real estate changes of the past seven
years it has been but very slightly altered. Of course rents
have increased, and its shops transact a larger volume of
busiuess, but not one new building of importance has been
erected between Porty-second street on the north and
Thîrty-fifth street on the south, This is all the more ex-
traordinary because of the enormous amount of new build-
ing which has taken place in the vicinity of Loug Acre and
Greeĩey Squares, and because a number of blocks in this
interraediate section are iraproved with nothing more ex-
pensive than taxpayers. We understand that the failure of
these streets to share in the buiĩding improvements that
have been consummated to the noríh and to the south is
partly due to the opposition of certain importaut local prop-
erty-owners, but it has also beeu partly due to the compar-
ative unavailability of these blocks. They are not as de-
sirable for general business purposes as is the -yicinity of
Thirty-fourth street. Neither are they as desîrable for res-
taurant aud amusement purposes as is the Ä©mmediate
neighborhood of Forty-second street. The ground floors of
the buildings on this' part of Broadway rent easily at Ä©arge
prices, but the upper stories are not in great demand, If,
however, there is any .raan in New York who is capable of
I