REAL. ESTATE







Afyo





W)  BUILDERS





NEW YORK, JANUARY 22, 1916





APARTMENT   HOUSE   TREND   IN   QUEENS

Demand For Suites in Corona and Adjacent Sections in Ex¬
cess of Supply—Accessibility and Price Important Factors





As the result of the industrial growth
of Long Island City during the last
three or four years a new condition has
arisen, one which has direct bearing upon
the housing of thousands of artisans
now employed by the concerns which
have erected new structures at, or near,
the bridge plaza. The location for the
new industrial development was chosen
for many reasons, any one of which
would have been sufficient in itself. In
the first place the land values were such
tliat buildings could be erected profit¬
ably, but added to this the transit facili¬
ties made Manhattan and Brooklyn ac¬
cessible and the railroad and water
routes near at hand facilitated' the hand¬
ling of merchandise and its shipment to
all parts of the world.

When this development started there
were a few optimists who were ready to
concede that the movement would be a
large one, but it is doubtful whether
there were many who really compre¬
hended how far-reaching would be the
results. Now that the development is
fairly launched, it is realized
that only a beginning has been
made and that the next few
years will see an evolution
which would have been thought
unbelievable.

With this influx of indus¬
trial concerns a new problem
was created, namely, how to
best house those artisans em¬
ployed in these manufactories.
It was at first thought that
the majority of artisans would
go back and forth to Manhat¬
tan, or else go to the older
sections of Williamsburgh and
Brooklyn. Up to the present
time this has been the case,
but last summer several new
apartment houses were erect¬
ed at Jackson Heights by the
Queensboro Corporation, and
so successful were the enter¬
prises that six new buildings
are now under construction
and will be ready for the sum¬
mer renting season. But this
movement   is   only   in   its   in¬





fancy and the pres¬
ent demand is far
in excess of the
supply, as was wit¬
nessed by the ease
with which tenants
were obtained for
the structures as
soon as completed.
One of the par¬
ticular advantages
of the Jackson
Heights (formerly
known as the Bar-
clay-Dugro tract)
section is its ac¬
cessibility. There
are now nearing
completion on the
property five sta¬
tions of the Corona
branch of the Dual
Rapid Transit Sys¬
tem, and the run¬
ning time to the
Grand Central Ter¬
minal will be about







CORNER   HAYES   AVENUE   AND   23TH   STREET,   ELMHURST.







JACKSON   AVENUE  AND   2DTH   STREET,   ELMHURST,







2oTH  STREET.  NEAR   POLK  AVENUE,   ELMHURST.





fifteen minute s.
Naturally it will
be correspondingly
less to the Long
Island City side of
the bridge. The
apartments erected
at Jackson Heights
are particularly
adaptable to the
better class of arti¬
sans and are mod¬
ern in every re¬
spect, containing
many features
which are only to
be found in the
better class of
houses now being
built in Manhattan.
Special attention
has been given to
the size of the
rooms and the
court area (which
in many instances
is      much      l&rger





than the legal requirements).
Naturally this is only possible
because of the cheapness of
the land values. The builders
endeavored to install devices
which would be of convenience
to the housewife, and this has
also been an influencing factor
in the renting of the suites.

There is little doubt but that
operators will go into the sec¬
tion and finance similar opera¬
tions, because this class of in¬
vestor can differentiate between
a false and a true demand.

Of first importance in the
development of the outer bor¬
oughs are internal changes in
the Borough of Manhattan.
The most impressive change
of this kind which is potent
has been the northward move¬
ment of the wholesale and re¬
tail business centers. This
movement has built up the
central sections of Manhattan
and has shifted the employ¬
ment of many thousands of people to a
point whose logical outlet is Queens.
Supplementing this, a large number of
office buildings have been erected and
more are now building in the Grand
Central Terminal zone.

Since the days of the settlement of old
Fort Amsterdam, at the Battery, New
York City has developed steadily and
persistently in a Northward direction.
There were good reasons for this trend,
because the line of least resistance is
always followed. But with the course of
time and congestion of population some
of the important natural barriers were
removed and the trend naturally was di¬
verted into other channels.

The spanning of the East River, by
the old Brooklyn Bridge, was the first
step in this direction, for after all the
old ferry systems did but little relieve the
situation. Then came tunnels and bridges
until today there are enough systems in
operation, or in course of construction
to take care for the immense increase in
population which is bound to come to
Queens  within  the next few years.