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REAL ESTATE
BUILDERS
AND
Vol. CI
NEW YORK, JUNE 29, 1918
No. 26
Buy Down Town Property to Save Paying Rent
More Sales East of Broadway Below City Hall in the Last Twenty
Months Than in the Previous Twenty Years
By CHARLES F. NOYES
DOWNTOWN real estate has proved its worth. I
can state positively that when a parcel in this lo¬
cality is properly selected it is the one best investment
that can be made.
This statement is made notwithstanding the fact that
the real estate market has been and is handicapped by
the absence of mortgage money for reasons perfectly
well known by realty experts, and notwithstanding the
''knocks" real estate has received until recently by
alleged fire prevention experts and various City and
State authorities who tried to over-regulate and over-
inspect it until it might be bled to death.
Incidentally thanks are due to Thomas J. Drennan,
our present Fire Commissioner, and Dr. William F.
Doyle, the best Fire Prevention Chief in my time, for
their efforts to correct this pernicious practice.
There are persons who are offering gratuitous advice
to possible investors to keep out of the real estate mar¬
ket at the present time and to invest their money in
other securities. These people are usually unfortunate
individuals who inherited or purchased over-capitalized
buildings, erected during a boom, with an abnormally
high rent roll and an equally abnormal mortgage as
their only merit. They believed they had value when
true underlying value did not exist, as might be indi¬
cated on the basis of reproduction, and they have been
writhing, and twisting, and lamenting their fate be¬
cause a perfectly reasonable and just mortgagee has
been asking payments on account of the abnormally
high loan.
There are five facts that will surprise the ordinary
follower of the real estate market:
First.—On the lower East Side more property has
been sold during the past twenty months than during
the previous twenty years.
Second.—The buying has been largely for occupancy
and for investment.
Third,—Many sales have been on a strictly all-cash
basis.
Fourth.—Property in this section has never been
more eagerly sought, either for rental or purchase.
Fifth.—Rentals have increased, only a little space is
available, and while a few years ago real estate was dor¬
mant, now it is in active demand at good prices, despite
the adverse conditions referred to.
Yes, more property has been sold on the lower East
Side during the past twenty months than during the
past twenty years, and this in a market where mort¬
gage loans are difficult or impossible to secure, and
with the most adverse conditions due to local causes
and aggravated by the world conflict. This fact alone
is full of significance, and an analysis of the character
of the very recent buying is interesting.
The recent purchase of the 34,000 square foot plot
taking in the block on Nassau street from Maiden lane
to Liberty street, by the Federal Reserve Bank at over
$3,000,000, with the certain additional value that the
ultimate improvement will bring to the neighborhood;
the purchase of the eight or ten buildings taking in the
entire block on Maiden lane to Fletcher from Front to
Water; and the erection of the new modern building
by and for the New Jersey Zinc Co., is certain to help
Maiden lane from Broadway to the East River and the
contiguous property.
Other purchases that can be referred to of great sig¬
nificance are the plot uf 27,000 sq. ft. of ground, 13-27
Broadway to the Cunard Line; the purchase of 35-39
Broadway, 11-15 Trinity place, a plot of over 17,000 sq.
ft., and its improvement, by Gaston, Williams & Wig-
more; the purchase of seven different buildings at 88-92
Pearl street and 54-60 Water street, by W. R. Grace &
Co., for an extension of their big banking house; the
securing of 72-74 Broadway and 9-11 New street by the
Central Union Trust Co.; the purchase of the old "Del¬
monico Building," at Beaver and South William streets,
by the Merchants Marine House; the recent securing
of 103-105 William street by the Maryland Casualty
Co. for its permanent home; the taking over of 71-75
Wall street by the American Cotton and Grain Exchange,
and in the same neighborhood the purchase of ten or
twelve buildings taking in the entire block front on
South street, from Wall to Pine, with a plottage of
over 22,000 sq. ft., by Frederic E. Gunnison for himself
and associates, and the leasing in the same neighbor¬
hood of big office buildings to Amsinck & Co.; the
American Molasses Co., the Pacific Development Co.,
and the purchase of 112 Wall street by Czarnikow
Rionda Co. At 22-24 Pearl street, near the Battery,
Furness Withy & Co., Ltd., secured a site for their
business home, and only a month ago the Mexican
Telegraph Co. took over the entire block on Broad
street from South William to Stone, for immediate
improvement, and Carl Platou purchased a large plot at
113-115 Broad street and 27 Front, to be largely occupied
by his business.
A very important transaction was the taking over by
lease, with a contract to purchase, of the Fulton Mar¬
ket, a plot of 34,000 feet, taking in the entire block
from South to Front and Fulton to Beekman. This
was secured by W. Elsworth Sprague and Harry Trimm
of Hunter & Trimm, two big fish houses, who arc now
altering the property, a portion of which will be sub¬
leased.
The Front street district has been very active and
sales have been recorded as follows: 7-9 Front street
to the Seaboard Trading Co.; 33 Front street to Ed¬
ward W. Burr; 46-48 Front street to J. J. Curtin, Inc.;
43-47 Front street to the Seamen's Church Institute;