REAL   ESTATE







AND







NEW YORK, DECEMBER 6, 1913





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I       FUTURE    OF    THE    GROCERY    DISTRICT





Like Austin, Nichols & Co., Other Wholesale Houses May Remove Their Ship¬
ping Plants, But Manufacturers' Sales Agents Will Take the Space Vacated





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DOWNTOWN real estate men are
divided in their views concerning
the effect on the lower West Side of the
forthcoming removal of the manufactur¬
ing and distributing departments of Aus¬
tin, Nichols & Co., Inc., to the Brooklyn
Eastern District Terminal, the news of
which was told in detail in these col¬
umns last Saturday. There was no dif¬
ference of opinion as to the importance
of a step of this character on the part
of the leading wholesale grocery house
in the city. The want of agreement was
apparent only in connection with the in¬
terpretation of its significance to the old
wholesale district.

That district is just now, and has been
for years, in a prosperous condition. Its
tenants deal for the most part in staple
goods, and their business has been ex¬
panding with  the  growth  of  population





district, including warehouses as well
as lofts and offices, is in active demand,
a condition in marked contrast with that
which prevails in other wholesale dis¬
tricts. In some quarters it was feared
this week that the experience of the
wholesale section of Broadway might be
repeated, because the economic influences
determining the action of Austin, Nichols
& Co. in seeking a waterfront location
are operative also in the case of other
large wholesale grocers; indeed, it i^
known that at least one of them is at
the moment considering a Brooklyn site
on the East River.

But the weight of opinion seemed to
be that the lower West Side is in a class
by itself, and that the loss of the manu¬
facturing and distributing departments
of one or more, or even all, of the
wholesale   grocers   would   make   no   im-





grows. Her port facilities to-day are
inferior to those of foreign cities; there
is no effective correlation between her
steamship and railway lines, and she
still relies upon street trucking for the
local movement of goods, while other
cities are providing freight subways or
elevated roads." A big corporation like
.^.ustin, Nichols & Co., he added, may
escape to the waterfront, but the aver¬
age concern, upon the numbers and pros¬
perity of which the growth of the city
depends, has no way of reducing the
high  cost of doing business  here.

Real Estate Prospect.

The case for the lower West Side was
stated by Frederick M. Hilton, of Wm.
.A.  White & Sons, to this effect:

"The leasing of a large warehouse on
the    Brooklyn    waterfront    by    Austin,







VIEWS   IN  THE  WHOLESALE GROCERY  DISTRICT   OF  MANHATTAN.





both in the city and throughout the
country. The wholesale grocery trade
is largely dependent upon importations
by water, and a seaport location with
trunk line railway connections is there¬
fore essential. The New York whole¬
sale grocery trade has outstripped that
of other cities in development, and the
larger concerns on the lower West Side
have been in constant need of additional
floor space.

While the wholesale houses have been
expanding, brokerage houses and manu¬
facturers' sales departments have been
multiplying. The latter have generally
sought quarters in modern loft and office
buildings, of which there are compara¬
tively few as yet on the lower West
Side.

A Unique Trade District.

The announcement of the removal of
the bulk of the establishment of Austin,
Nichols & Co., which occupies not less
than nine buildings, comes at a time
when housing in the wholesale  grocery





pression upon real estate values, pro¬
vided the sales departments remained in
the district. The vacancies, it was
argued, would quickly be taken up by
brokers, by manufacturers' representa¬
tives, and especially by influ.x from
the shoe district, the butter and egg
district and certain other adjacent ex¬
panding trades to which a waterfront
location is not particularly advantageous.
Downtown Freight Congestion.
If, however, there was no great alarm
over rea! estate values in the wholesale
grocery district itself, concern was ex¬
pressed with regard to the failure of
the city to reconstruct the downtown
waterfront promptly along modern lines
and to provide economical freight trans¬
portation within the city. "As a broad
proposition," according to one of the
men interviewed, "the $300,000,000 spent
on subways would have been of far more
vital importance to the city if spent on
dock front improvements, because New
York   grows   exactly   as   her   commerce





Nichols & Co. is very interesting news;
but those familiar with the lower West
Side and the conditions in the grocery
business have known for a long time
that the present location and the build¬
ings of that and other concerns were
not satisfactory, and that they were con¬
sidering locations outside of Manhattan.
This has been brought about mainly by
the expense of cartage in New York.
The quantity of goods to be handled in
the grocery business is enormous; the
profits are small, and the cost of trans¬
portation has been growing heavier each
year.

"There is no doubt that other large
firms will make some similar change in
the near future, but if the present plans
of the New York Central Ra'lroad on
the West Side work out as we a'l ex¬
pect I think that a part of this business
may be  retained  in  Manhattan.

"From a real estate standpoint. I do
not think that this change will have a
harmful effect on what is known as the