Please note: this text may be incomplete. For more information about this OCR, view
About OCR text.
December 19, 1908
RECORD AND GUIDE
1257
ESTABUSHED^'iA.MlFH 21V> 1868.
Dev&^ to Re(<lEstate.BulLDl^'G %cKiTEeTUi^E.KousEi{ou)DEeaRfTio[JL.
Bt/SltiESSAflDTHEfJiESOrGtHERfUKTERfSl.,
PRICE PER YEAR IN ADVANCE EIGHT DOLLARS
Communications should be addressed to
C. W. SWEET
Published EVerp Saturday
By THE KECOKD AND GUIDE CO.
President, CLINTON W. SWEET Treasurer, F. W. DODGB
Vice-Pres, Sc Genl, IWgr,, H. W. DESMOND Secretary, F. T. MILLER
Nos. 11 to 15 East 24tli Street, New York City
(Telephone. Madison Square, 4430 to 4433.)
"Entered at tlic Post Office ut New Tork, N. Y., as second-class matter."
Copyrighted, IOOS, by Ttie Record &. Guide Co.
Vol LXXXII.
DECEMBER 19, 190S.
No, 2127
THB suggestion, which has originated with, property-
owners of Queens Borough, that the cost of pur¬
chasing the Belmont tunnel should be assessed on the
real estate of that locality is interesting, because of the
source from which it came. The practical difiieulty of as¬
sessing tbe cost of any transit improvement on the beneflted
property turns upon the injustice which inevitably results
from any pre-determined distribution of the burden of the
assessment. In the case of the present subway, for instance,
its effect upon the property along the line of Its route has
been very unccjual. It has undoubtedly Jiad everything to
do with the rise in real estate values on Washington Heights,
and in this instance the benefit has extended over the whole
of that district, which previous to the opening of the subway
was without any adequate means of communication. In this
instance the only difficulty would be that of determining
what proportion of the cost should be assessed on Broadway,
what upon tlie nearest avenues to the east and west, and
what upon the side streets; and that task, while onerous,
would not, in all probability, be attended with auy more
injustice than usually results from ali assessment of beneflts.
But throughout the rest of the route the task of distributing
the assessments equitably would be beyond the power even
of the most disinterested and best informed real estate ex¬
pert. The Lenox avenue branch was built through a dis¬
trict already largely improved, and partly supplied with
means of communication. It has unquestionably heen of
benefit; but the amouut aud area thereof would be practically
Impossible to determine. On the West Side, Broadway has
beeu enormously beneflted by the subway and so have the
streets and avenues in the immediate vicinity thereof; liut
on the other hand, Columbus avenue has, in certain portions,
probably been injured. The work of assessing the benefit
would be arduous, but n^t perhaps Impossible. Longacre
Square property has increased in value since the subway was
opened, but what proportion of this increase was due to
causes independent of the subway could not be accurately
determined. Fourth avenue has, on the other hand, been
less benefited than might have been expected; and its future
improvement will not be either modified or much accelerated
by the presence of the subway. Elm street finally has not to
all appearances received any benefit from the construction
of the subway. If it would be difflcult to distribute these
benefits equitably after the subway has been in operation for
four years, it would have been impossible to have adopted
any plan of assessment prior to the gradual ascertainment
by experience of the actual effects of the new subway service,
which would not have been grossly unjust to certain proper¬
ty-owners. Let us suppose that an attempt should now be
made to distribute the benefits to real estate values accru¬
ing from the proposed Broadway-Lexington Avenue route.
It might be possible to assess certain real estate in the Broux
without doing any more than the usual injury to individual
property-owirers; but so far as the whole distance in Man¬
hattan is concerned, no real estate expert could determine
with any certainty how much the direct traceable benefit
would amount to, and over what area it should be distrib-.
uted.
THE difflculty of assessing the cost of purchasing the Bel¬
mont tunnel to Queens would he simpler than is usu¬
ally the case, because Queens would derive most of the bene¬
fit from such au expenditure. Should the property-owners
of that Borough be willing to assume the burden, tbe task
of equitably distributing it could be left to them or their
representatives. But when the details even of this proposal
came to be closely considered, difficulties would be sure to
arise. The Belmont tunnel, for instance, in order to get
ils maximum transit value, should be extended to some point
west of the line of Broadway; and how would the cost of
such an extension be paid? The extension would unques¬
tionably benefit the whole of the theatrical, restaurant and
shopping district, but no one In his senses would attempt
to say how much the benefit would amount to, or how it
should be distributed. On the other hand, in case the cost
were paid by the whole city, Brooklyn, Richmond and Bronx
taxpayers might ask what they had to gain from the expen¬
diture. It is such difficulties and complications which makes
the Record and. Guide prefer a continuation of the method
used in paying for the existing subway. The $50,000,000
invested in that improvement will not cost the city anything,
either in interest or capital, because the subway itself will in
the end return to the city every penny spent upon it. There
is no need in assessing upon private property-owners the ex¬
pense of an improvement which is fully competent to pay its
own way. On the other hand, in case a tunnel or a subway
is desirable, but does not promise to pay its own way, some
provision might be made for assessing its cost upon the bene¬
fitted property. There seems to be a doubt, for instance,
whether the Belmont tunnel would pay its way, and the
property-owners of Queens seem willing to assume the bur¬
den. In such an instance, some arrangeraent might be made
which would permit them to do so. The same principle
might be applied to the Fourth Avenue subway in South
Brooklyn. The city, for instance, has already paid the whole
expense of the Manhattan Bridge, with which that subway is
to be connected. Let it also pay the cost of the first section
of the subway which is necessary for the proper connection
of the Manhaitan Bridge with the transit system of the
whole Borough of Brooldyn. Then if South Brooklyn de¬
sires the remaining and prospectively unprofitable sections
of the subway because of the increased value it would bring
to real estate in that neighborhood, let them agree to stand
au assessment for the purpose. If the cost of the extension
were paid out of an assessment, its revenues need only be
sufficient to pay for operating exjienses.
THE old Hotel Metropole at Broadway, Seventh avenue
and Forty-second street, Js stated to have been leased
by a large drug company, which proposes to establish a chain
of retail stores similar to those already- established by the
United Cigar Stores Company. If such proves to be the case,
a good many private property-owners should be benefited
thereby. The United Cigar Stores Company has by its leas¬
ing operations helped to increase the rentals of many pecu¬
liarly well-situated corners. The management of the com¬
pany appreciated the advantage to be gained by securing for
their tobacco trade shops in the centre of very busy neigh¬
borhoods, and the owners of real estate also soon discovered
that the Cigar Company could afford to pay higher rentals
for such property than were otherwise likely to be obtained.
A company operating a chain of drug stores could probably
afford to pay still higher rents for those locations most suit¬
able to its purposes. Probably few retail stores in the city
are so remunerative to their owners or turn over their capital
more frequently than a popular drug store. But it is ex-
tremely important that the location should be just right. If
a drug store can earn a rental of $70,000 a year for the
Metropole site, in spite of the competition of one of the most
popular shops in the city on the other side of the street, it
will certainly be an object lesson of interest to the,owners
of real estate. It will mean that the retail drug trade can
justify a rental for a parcel of property which makes its
capitalized value not far frora $400 a square foot. It re¬
mains to be seen what other sites the drug company will
consider necessary for its purpose. It must be quick iu case
it wishes to secure many additional locations of anything
like the same degree of desirability. Nothing has been more
remarkable ahout the real estate development of the past six
years than the extent to which the most desirahle corners in
the city have passed into the possession of companies or men
whose business demands their permanent appropriation.
The owners of large retail stores are planning ahead not tor
a dozen years, but for several generations. They understand
that the retail trade is not going to be shoved uptown iu
the future as it has been in tbe past. It will occupy its
existing quarters between Twenty-third and Fiftieth streets
for a much longer period than it has occupied any particular
district further south.