Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 67, no. 1727: April 20, 1901

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April 20, 1901. HK( ()HI> AND (;Un>E. 695 f^^'U^i^ '^j^-.sr- ON THE PRESS. ■The NEW TENEMENT HOUSE LAW, edited by William J. Fryer, with headings and complete cross reference index, etc., etc., will be published shortly by the Record and Guide, 14 and 16 Vesey St.. New Tork City. Price, One Dollar. Orders should now be sent in to secure prompt delivery. This volume is an absolute necessity to every Architect, Builder, En¬ gineer, Real Estate Owner, Operator and Broker. Review of the Week. The real estate market during the week has been suffering from certain excesses of the past and fearing certain dangers In the future. Por nearly two months sales have unquestion¬ ably been unwholesomely swollen by the expectation of restric¬ tive tenement-house legislation, and, of course, the number of buildings projected have from the same reason been still more increased. It will undoubtedly take the market a long time to recover from these unavoidable but not desirable excesses. At any particular time there is only a limited number of men deal¬ ing in New Tork real estate, and they have only a limited amount of capital under their control. When for some com¬ pelling reason, these men are all much engaged in one kind of operation, and are loaded up with as much as they can carry of one class of property or building contract, the general market has to wait until this glut bas in the course of time been miti¬ gated. Such is the condition of the real estate market at present. Operations have been active ever since the first of the year, but they have been largely speculative. At the present time the speculators are pretty well loaded up. They are carrying large amounts of property, and are planning very considerable im¬ provements, and until they are enabled to unload, or until the in¬ vestment demand becomes stronger, the number of weekly sales will in all probability continue to be somewhat smaller. Other infiuences which also have been retarding, if not pre¬ venting, operations, are the danger now past of the passage of the Mortgage Tax Bill and of disturbances with the labor unions in the building trades. The threat of the mortgage tax bill was peculiarly ominous. It was not so much that it would in the long run increase the cost of loans upon real estate, for as soon as conditions were readjusted, borrowers could have obtained all the money they needed from institutions exempted from the burden of the tax. But in the meantime many loans, at present outstanding, would have been called in, and the borrower would have been obliged either to pay more temporarily for his money, or to replace his loan with one of the favored institutions. Such readjustments would have caused the utmost inconvenience and confusion, and as long as they hung over the real estate market, operators were naturally disinclined to assume new responsibil¬ ities. The labor troubles also have tended to make the con¬ structors of tall buildings hesitate to go ahead, .Certain me¬ chanics have been going out on the Broad-Exchange Building, at the very moment when it was most necessary to push the work, not because they have any grievance against their employ¬ ers, but because they cannot come to an agreement among themselves; and as long as this fight Is on between the two separate labor organizations, builders will hesitate to incur the responsibility of very definite contracts. Hence it is not surprising that the sales which are reported in our "Gossip" column are rather scattering, and are more than usually difficult to group. One of the most interesting of them is the purchase by tbe 23d st branch of the Toung Men's Christian Association of a plot 93.9x200 on tbe north side of 23d st, west 01 7th av, as the site for its new building, Tbis is interesting, be¬ cause it may, perhaps, serve to put some life into a neighborhood that has been inactive for many years. There has been very little done on 23d st west of 7th av since the Chelsea apartment house was constructed, and it would not be surprising to find some of the activity which has been so remarkable in the retail trade region near Oth av overfiow into the less active quarter further wesL There have been several instances lately of neigh¬ borhoods which have been neglected for many years coming in for a revival of interest. It was more than sixteen years ago, for instance, that the Grammercy Park Hotel Was erected on the square of that name, and during all these years no similar improvement has been planned until recently Charles Buek has proposed to build a bachelor apartment house on the opposite side of the square. There is no pleasanter or more convenient lo¬ cation in New Tork for such a building. In the same way Madi¬ son av, between 34th st and Madison square, has been dull ever since several large apartment houses were erected thereupon late in the eighties. And now it is announced that an apartment hotel will be constructed on the southwest corner of that avenue and 29th st, the present site of Scottish Rite Hall. This neigh¬ borhood ought to be as good a location for such improvements as the one along the line of Broadway, whieh has hitherto been more popular. The underground road will create so much trafflc between Broadway and 4th av, that there should be excuse for more activity both on Madison av and on the side streets. The Record and Guide noted recently that an attempt was be¬ ing made to acquire under one ownership the block front on the east side of Long Acre square, between 45th and 46th sts. The extent to which the attempt was successful has been divulged during the past week. James W. Henning, who recently took title to tbe stable property Nos. 1540 and 1542 Broadway and No. 171 West 45th st, has purchased the four houses adjoining on 45th st, Nos. 163 to 169, inclusive, whieh gives him a frontage