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APRIL 13, 1912
A PROMISING MERCANTILE THOROUGHFARE.
The Projected Improvements on Seventh Avenue Should Make it Attract¬
ive to Speculative Builders—It May Rival Fourth Avenue in Time.
TcIE most remarkable feature of the real
eatate market In the last few years
has been the unu.'sually large demand for
avenue building sites and this has been
decidedly pronounced in the territory gen¬
erally known as the new- midtown mer¬
cantile distnict. Since 1008, Fourth ave¬
nue has been very largely rebuilt, Madi¬
son avenue has undergone many changes.
Fifth avenue has made pronounced gains
in the way of new structures and plots
on Broadway have been taken up almost
as soon as they appeared in the market.
Prices have risen on these avenues and
the available supply of suitable building
plots has been decreased ito such an ex¬
tent that speculative builders are find¬
ing it exceediingly difficult to obtain new
locations for additonal structures and are
therefore turning their eyes towards
anore undeveloped thoroughfares.
Among the several subdivisions of the
new mercantile district, (the locality
which now seems most promising for
future development is that west of
Broadway and north of 34th street, and
the avenues most likely to be considered
are Sixth and Seventh, Sixth avenue,
however, Is decidedly handicapped by the
posseasion of the elevated structure
which, while it is the means of bringing
retail trade to .the street, is a serious
detriment to the upper portions of thu
structuz'es along the way. In addHtion to
fare will be created from the heart of the
amusement district, along the western
side of the present mercantile section and
continuing in a fatlrly straight line to
the margin of the financial district. This
will afford a much needed artery of
travel from the wholesale center to the
Chelsea Piers and the Public Stores. II
win be so central that it may well prove
a popular line for motor travel be¬
tween the hotel and financial districts and
will offer a short route for cab service
between the New York Central and
Pennsylvania terminals and the steam¬
ship docks.
The avenue is to be 100 feet wide from
West Broadway to 59th street and will
have ample room for drays and motor
trucks. The extension has been approved
by the Board of Estimate and it is ex¬
pected that actual work will be started
in ten or twelve months. Considerable
dissatisfaction has been expressed by
Seventh avenue property owners with the
tentative area of assessment for this im¬
provement and an endeavor will be made
10 have it increased, particularly above
18lh street. The area now begins at 4'Jnd
street and. as far south as 18th street,
extends east and west only about 400
feet. As the present mercantile district
between Sixth and Seventh avenues and
the two blocks immediately west of
Seventh avenue will surely derive their
AA'est Side and the Seventh avenue sub¬
w'ay offers the only adequate soutlon.
Its connection with Brooklyn and the
lines from the Bronx and Queens means
â– that workers living in the outlying dis¬
tricts can reach the AVest Side as easily
a.s they can any olher portion of the city
and do it on a five cent fare.
WithjouL the subway Fourth avenue
would not have obtained its present po¬
sition in the mercantile world in spite of
its nearness to Broadway, and Seventh
avenue, with rapid transit, appears to of¬
fer opportunities similar to those on the
eastern thoroughfare. There are many
wholesale and manufac turing lines not
yet represented in the uptown centers
and many of these will eventually move
north. More manufacturing will un¬
doubtedly be found in the future on
Seventh avenue than on Fourth, but it
will not be surprising if rents and values
on Seventh avenue very closely approxi¬
mate 'those on Fourth avenue within a
few years. Lines of business which might
be induced to locate In the Seventh ave¬
nue district include manufacturers and
wholesalers of clothing, millinery, feath¬
ers, hats, ecclesiastical goods and crock¬
ery. Already the National Cloak and
.Suit Company, one of the largest of mail¬
order houses, has established its big plant
on the avenue and the convenience of¬
fered by the postoffice at the Pennsylva-
THE PENNSYLVANIA STATION, THE FIRST GREAT IMPROVEMENT ON SEVENTH AVENUE.
this, prices have ranged high in expecta-
ition that the retail trade w^ould spread
further north and continue to increase in
volume. Prices on Seventh avenue have
remained much lower than those on
Sixth and would not constitute any ob¬
stacle to immediate improvement.
In view of this fact and of the now
almost positive assurance that two
great muncipal improvements will be car¬
ried out on Seventh avenue, it seems
probable that this thoroughfare is next
in line for mercantile development and
that it is destined soon to become as im¬
portant from a business standpoint aa its
- general strategic position would appear
ito warrant.
The three principal forces in the ul-
lunate developmenl of Seventh avenue
are the Pennsylvania railroad station,,
the opening of the thoroughfare a,t it.s
southerly end and the extension of the
Broadway subway down Seventh avenue
and the entire West Side. Of these but
one is an accomplished fact and the ex¬
pected results therefrom have not been
strongly felt up to the present time. The
Pennsylvania station has been built but
as yet has only been used for through
trains from the West and South and a
portion of the Long Island traffic. The
extension of Seventh avenue from its
present terminus at Greenwich avenue
south to "Varick street, bids fair to be
one of the most beneficial of recent street
changes in the City. A new thorough-
fair share of the benefits accruing from
the extension, the feeling prevails that it
would be only just to widen this area and
perhaps carry it north to .^9th street.
South of 18th street the area is consid¬
erably wider and seems more equitable.
The third and apparently most import¬
ant factor in the future of Seventh ave¬
nue is the subway and, in view of the
passage of rapid transit legislation and
the favorable action of the Mayor and
Board of Estimate, an extension of the
Broadway line from 42nd street now
seems assured. The beneflt from such
a line can scarcely be even estimated. Not
only will Seventh avenue be enormously
helped but the en'tire AA''est Side from
42iid street lo the Battery will be made
very accessible from all parts of the city.
That part of the avenue north of 32nd
street M'ill become available for retail
trade, hotels and restaurants. The por¬
tion below the terminal will present ex¬
cellent opportunities for wholesale and
ananiifacturing concerns which have
heretofore largely avoided the district on
account of its inaccesgibllity. The new
mercantile colony in the old Ninth Ward
will derive an immense benefit and the
entire wholes;iIe and manufacturing dis¬
trict of the lower West Side will no longer
lliie practically isolated from the more ac¬
tive centers. The problem of obtaining
sufficient labor has always been one of
the serious features to be considered by
manufacturers wishing to locate on the
nia terminal is likely to draw others in
the same line.
Among those who have been most ac¬
tive in advocating the improvements of
the thoroughfare is the iSeventh Avenue
Association, a strong local organization
composed of property owners and promi¬
nent merchants in the vicinity. The as¬
sociation has done excellent work at the
various hearings in this city and in Al¬
bany on the subway questions and the
matter of the Seventh avenue extension.
At the instance of the association the
New Tork Kailway.s Company has agreed
that, after June 1, it will run its Sth
street crosstown cars up Seventh avenue
to l:)4th street. Some of these go as far
east as Delancey street and others run
over the Williamsburg Bridge. This will
provide much better surface car accom¬
modations for factory wcti-kers at the
lower end of the avenue as the Seventh
avenue cars at preseni do not go below
.Sixth avenue and Sth street, and most of
the factory hands live on the lower East
Side or in Broooklyn. It is also hoped
that before long the Company will slill
further extend its service by carrying the
Seventh avenue cars across G3d street
and then north on Columbus and
Amsterdam avenues to 106th street. In
addition to the other modes of travel
projected for Seventh avenue, the Fifth
Avenue Coach Company intends, if per¬
mission can be obtained, to run some of
its motor busses across 34th street to (l)i>