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Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 73, no. 1885: April 30, 1904

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978 RECORD AND GUIDE April 30, 1904 One advantage, however, of the routes selected by the Com¬ mission is that they leave space for two four-track tunnels loop¬ ing at the Battery—one on First Avenue connecting with the Bridges, and one on Eighth Avenue and Hudson Street; and it is upon tunnels built along these routes which the Bronx and Westchester will have to depend for their future development. THE precise value of the rapid transit extensions will, under (be scheme outlined by the committee's report, depend upon Llie results of the bidding; and it is interesting to inquire just what the Manhattan rapid transit system would amoimt to under each of the alternative possibilities. If the bid of the New York City Railway Company proves to be more attractive, we shall have a Lexington Avenue and Broadway tunnel, which will practically parallel the existing subway south of Forty-Sfcond Street. This is not an ideal arrangement, particu¬ larly as the parallel lines run only one block apart; but in adopting it, the committee wished to connect the East Side with tbe dry goods district. And this could be done only by means of a Broadway tunnel. The arrangement may be neces¬ sary, but it has the great drawback of duplicating transit ac¬ commodations for several miles in the center of Manhattan and of leaving the lower East Side, the most congested part of the borough, wholly unprovided witb additional means of transit. It will also create a peculiar situation on the West Side, in that the lower West Side will be connected with the upper East Side by means of Thirty-fourth Street aud Lexington Avenue and the upper West Side will be connected with the lower East Side by way of Forty-second Street and Fourth Avenue; but tbe uppdr West Side will have no connection at all with the lower West Side. Under these conditions, whatever advantages tbe city would obtain from transfers between the surface cars and the new subway system, tbat system would be far from being a very satisfactory or economical solution of the transit problem. On the other hand, in case the bid of the Interborough Com¬ pany should prove to be more attractive, Manbattan would have two parallel tunnels some half a mile or more apart, and con¬ nected by cross-town tunnels at Forty-second Street, Thirty- fourth Street, Chambers Street, and by a loop at the Battery. This would, apart from tbe transfer question, be both a more economical and a better planned subway system than the alter¬ native outlined above, and in considering tbe bids of the two companies, this fact should enter into calculation of comparative advantages. The Interborough Company should be able to make a stiff fight for the adoption of its plan in spite of the enormous advantage which its transfer offer gives to the New York City Railway Company. The Northerly Hovement of the Fifth Avenue Business District. X S every one knows who has followed the real estate mar- ■^"^ ket for the past year, it is only oa Thirty-fourth Street and on Fifth Avenue that high-priced property has shown any¬ thing like the activity of tbe two preceding years. While the other centers of former speculation have been extremely quiet, real es:ate on Fifth Avenue has been in lively demand and at advancing prices. This statement is not, indeed, true of that part of the Avenue north of Fiftieth Street, devoted to resi¬ dential purposes. Neither is it true of that part of the A3'e- nue south of Twenty-third Street which is devoted chiefly to the wholesale trade. But it is true of about twenty-flve blocks be¬ tween Twenty-fifth St. and some street near Fiftieth Street. It is this part of the Avenue which has been selected for the so-called carriage trade—for sboiis. that is, wbich are snported chiefly by rich people, and make a point of selling high-priced goods. During the preceding years a great many firms, formerly situ¬ ated in the neighborhood of Twenty-third Street and Broadway, such .ii3 the Aeolian Company, Kaskel & Kaskel, and the like, bought or leased permanent locations on the Avenue; and the whole movement culminated last spring when the Gorham and Tiffany companies began to build handsome buildings on the corners of Thirty-sixth and Thirty-seventh Streets. Tbe erection of such stores as these meant tbat for fifty years at least Fifth Avenue was to be the thoroughfare on which almost all the best shops in New York would have to find a location; and it behooved every firm that was looking for the carriage trade, to secure some permanent seat for Its business. This, a great many of them have been assiduously doing with the result that prices have now reached price a level, which is unprecedented for property of this kind. Throughout the whole of this dis¬ trict lots with old buildings seil for not less than one hundred dollars per square foot, and some times for a good deal more, and the end is not yet. Tbe demand is still active, being made so by the fact that business firms who need or will need a Fifth ■ Avenue location, are looliing for sites immediately, lest they should have to pay more a few years later. Besides this there are several large deals underway which will develop shortly, and 3vbich will help to increase the pressure as soon as they are announced. We call attention to these facts again because they have an important bearing upon the prospective events of the next few . weeks. Up to tbe present time business has not displaced resi- ' dences on Fifth Avenue above Forty-seventh Street to any great extent; but the demand for advantageous sites by firms with a Fifth Avenue trade is so great that it looks as if the blocks as far north as Fiftieth Street would have to succumb little by little lo the business pressure. Above Fiftieth Street the large Vanderbilt holdings and the Cathedral will long act as an absolute barrier to the incursions of business; but below Fiftieth Street several events of recent occurrence will contribute to the transformation of these blocks into business streets. In the long run the selling of the Columbia College leaseholds on the West Side to the leaseholders, can hardly have any other effect, while on the East Side a great deal will depend on tbe outcome of the sale of the Fifth Avenue property by the Kemp estate, which is advertised to be held about the middle of May. Of course it may be that the heirs of the estate are putting up the property at auction merely to obtain a set of values on the basis of which they can divide the estate; but even then, unless the estate is kept together by means of a real estate company, its partition will accelerate the distribution of the property. The Kemp estate includes Nos, 57G and 57S Fifth Avenue, a plot, 50.5x100, on the southwest corner of Forty-seventh Street and Fifth Avenue, with a three and a four-story building oa it. These properties are, of course, well within tbe existing busi¬ ness section. The corner. No, 578, is now assessed at $290,000, and ths other lot at $200,000, thus making a valuation, accord¬ ing to ;he official calculation, of $490,000 for the whole property. It will be interesting to see how near this estimate will be to the prices actually obtained. The estate also includes another par- . eel which is just as decisively out of the business part of the Avenue as the Forty-seventh Street parcel is within it. This is Nos. 'i20 and 722 Fifth Avenue, on the northwest corner of Fifty- sixth Street, a iilot, 50.5x100, with two four-story buildings on it. In 1S()9 and 1870 the late Mr. Kemp bought these two lots for $85,500; they are assessed at the present time for $535,000. Aa we have said, this property will assuredly remain residential prop¬ erty, and its offer at auction will disclose the fact whether the demand for eligible sites in the district devoted to high-priced residences is good enough to absorb such a corner as this—un¬ questionably one of tbe best in the city. Tbe property, however, in which we are particularly interested in this connection consists of Nos. 611, 613, 615, 619 and 621 Fifth Avenue, constituting the block front between Forty-niath aad Fiftieth Street, on the east side, barring only 617, which be- longis to the Democratic Club. Tbese lots are improved at the present time with the Buclvingbam Hotel and the Belgravia apartment house buildings, which yield a very good income, and wbich being comparatively modern structures, will stand iu the way of any reimprovement of the property. Together with some lots on the street, these parcels are assessed for a total of $3,165,000. Upon the disposition of this property will depend tbe immediate future of the several blocks from Forty- seventh to Fiftieth Street. While it is decidedly improbable that any purchaser will be found for it who will propose to use it immediately for business purpose, still if it passes into the bands of owners who will hold it merely for investment, it will probably eventually undergo the same sort of a transforma¬ tion as the old Hotel Bristol on the corner of Forty-second Street ta? recently undergone. If the large property-owners in the immediate vicinity of the Cathedral wish to keep the neigh¬ borhood free from any trace of a business atmosphere, they should take steps to control this property, because with two huge hotels at Fifty-fifth Street and Fifth Avenue, and with business necessities exerting a constant pressure from the south, it will require forcible measures to keep this block front in anything like its present condition. —In December, 1890, as we find in reading an old supplement of the Record and Guide. Mr. F. R. Houghton was quoted as say¬ ing: "Central Park West seems to have only one future—it is destined to become an avenue of grand apartment houses and hotels. Everything tends that way. It is too public a thorough¬ fare to become a private residence avenue. Central Park West ought to have been restricted from one end to the other, but this was neglected owing to the want of foresight ou the part of the owners." This has turned out to 'be a very correct prophesy. Mr. Houghton has done many thing to improve the Weat Side. For instance, be was one of the prime movers in transforming