May 28, 1910





RECORD  AND  GUIDE





1137









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C. W. SWEET

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By THE RECORD AND GTJIDE CO.

President,  CLINTON "W.  SWEET                        Treasurer, F. W. DODGE

Vice-Pres. & Genl. Mgr., H. W. DESMOND         Secretary, F. T. MILLER

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'•Entered at the Post Office at New York, N.  Y..  as s:-eoml-class matter."
Copyrighted.   1910,   by   The   Record   &   Guide   Co.





Vol. LXXXV.





MAY  2S,  1910.





No.   2202





THE real estate market has gradually been growing less
and less active and this inactivity has been putting
in an appearance earlier this year than usual. Ordinarily
June is a month of very lively trading, but unless there is
a spurt, it promises to be as dull during the next thirty days
as it is ordinarily in July. Apparently the conditions which
have been responsible for most of the real estate transac¬
tions of the year have spent their force. The majority of
the real estate and building news has been derived from
three sources-—from "Washington Heights—from the middle
ioft district and from Park avenue east of Central Park.
In the case of Washington Heights, as we pointed out last
week, there are many vacancies and building loan operators
are becoming convinced that it is time to go slow. Several
large institutions have been shutting down on their loans
in tills district, and the numbers of new improvements
planned during the remainder of the current year and the
first of the next will be small. A similar condition prevails
in the Ioft section. The new loft buildings, that are being
erected on Fourth avenue are not renting very well and
building loans are becoming more difficult to obtain on prop¬
erty in that particular section. The new builclings completed
west of Fifth avenue and Broadway, have rented somewhat
better; but there is a general feeling in the trade that it will
be better to go more slowly hereafter. There has not been
much over-building, but there has been some and a halt for
a year or two will do the district good. For the next eigh¬
teen months the mercantile district will contribute much
fewer transactions than it bas recently. The building of
cooperative and speculative apartments both to the east and
west of Central Park will continue with a smaller loss of
activity; but tlic uumber of transactions derived from this
source is never very large. Finally, the market for real
estate as well as retail and wholesale trade is being af¬
fected by a general feeling of insecurity. Well-informed
business men are not looking forward with much confidence
to the imtiiediale future; and this fact has undoubtedly pre¬
vented the absorption of as much real estate as was ex¬
pected by large business houses for the purpose of securing
new and permanent locations. It looks, consequently, as if
the coming year would not be very active; and what activ¬
ity there is will be due chiefly to the effect of certain trans-
sit improvements, which will either be completed or defi¬
nitely started.





IT is an extremely encouraging piece of news that Mayor
Gaynor is considering and recommending to his visitors
a very important change in the street system of Manhattan,
What be wants to do is to run a new avenue from Washing¬
ton Square to 59th street, between Fifth and Sixth avenues.
The idea is undoubtedly a very good one and would do more
to relieve traffic congestion in Manhattan than any other
one new streets which could be laid out. The distance be¬
tween Fifth and Sixth avenues is absurdly great, and a
street 100 feet wide could be cut through without making
the crosstown blocks on either side excessively short. They
would still be 350 feet and over in length. A large amount
of traffic could be diverted to the new thoroughfare, and
the congestion on Fifth avenue relieved for another genera¬
tion. Desirable, however, a's this 'impxpvement wouy, be,
the Record and Guide is. much afraid that it will. .when,
studied closely be found to be impracticable. It is estimated
tbat some 360 lots would be required for the new street,
and that they could be condemned for an average of $100,-





000 a lot, which would make tbe total cost $36,000,000;
and the Mayor believes that the improvement would be so
beneficial to abutting property owners that all or most of
this expense could be assessed upon them. Both of these
calculations involve very dubious elements. The property
could not he bought for anything like $36,000,000. A valu¬
ation of $100,000 a lot would he the minimum not the aver¬
age price which would have to be paid. Practically all lots
•within 400 feet of Fifth avenue, on the West are worth
$4,000 a front foot even where they are improved with old
brown stone dwellings. But the larger proportion of them
have been reimproved either with modern residences or with
tall business buildings. It is probable that as much as two
hundred of these lots would cost over $200,000 each with
their present buildings on them. Furthermore, there are
certain streets such as lith, 23d, 42d, and 59th streets,
on which the land values without improvements run any¬
where from $125,000 to $350,000 a lot; and it is probable
that a conservative estimate of the cost of condemning the
required area would make it run over $75,000,000. Neither
would it be possible in equity to assess any considerable pro¬
portion of this expense on neighboring property-owners.
Consider the position of a property owner, who was left
with a lot facing the new avenue. He would own, let us
say, a plot 100 feet on the avenue by 25 on the street. Such
a plot would be useless for improvement with a modern
fire-proof building. He would either be forced to buy ad¬
ditional property or to sell out to some one who did; and
the task of piecing together a large plot would be so costl;;
that the value of the improvement to the property-owner
would be much diminished. If he owned more than one
lot, it would mean that tbe property was already improved
with a building facing the street, which would have to be
entirely rebuilt, in order to adapt it to its new situation on
an avenue. Damages which would accrue from these causes
would eat up a large portion of the benefit to the individual
property-owner; and they would be increased by the loss
of income during the process of reconstruction. If the city
tried to push such a scheme through, it would be involved
in a large number of lawsuits and eventually in an impos¬
sible  expense.





THE Record and Guide does not believe that such a plan
would be economically practicable even if the city
had the legal power to condemn, not only the one hundred
feet needed for tbe street, but, one hundred feet more' on
each side, which could be subsequently sold at a profit. The
city could conceivably avoid some losses, in which individual
property-owners would be involved; but, it could not avoid
the loss of being obliged to throw away many miMion dol¬
lars worth of costly buildings, which would not be designed
and planned for their new locations. Ten years ago Huch
an avenue could be run through at an expense which might
not have been prohibitive; but today the process of re¬
improvement has been carried too far and the increase in
ground values has been too great. At the same time the
iuterest wbich Mayor Gaynor has exhibited in this essential
matter is most encouraging, and presumably it will lead to
a careful study of the problem and the working out of some
practicable method of relieving trafflc congestion. In the
first place, there are certain street improvements, such as
the southerly extension of Sixth and Seventh avenues, the
expense of which would not be prohibitive. In the second
place, a great deal can be done to improve the traffic bear¬
ing capacity of existing thoroughfares; and it is along these
lines that tbe least expensive and most remunerative im¬
provements may be planned. Stoop privileges should be
gradually revoked on all crosstown streets whose traffic is
increasing to large proportions, and on avenues, such as
Madison, which are becoming more and more burdened witb
vehicles, and by these means tbe roadways could be widened.
The next step would be to construct foot-ways of metal and
glass on congested avenues like Fifth avenue, which could
be used for the accommodation of pedestrians, and there¬
after the existing side-walks could be still further nar¬
rowed and the roadways widened. The same method could
be used on other avenues and on cross-town streets when¬
ever the congestion justified it. In all probability remedies
of tbis kind can be used to alleviate the congestion for a
great many years to come. Of course there would still be
delays at all points at which large streams of trafflc inter¬
sected; but obviously the new avenue proposed by Mayor
Gaynor would leave this aspect of the matter almost if not
quite, as troublesome as it is at present, and it will tend
hereafter   to   become   stUl   more   troublesome,   because   thg