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Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 76, no. 1971: December 23, 1905

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December 23, i^o^ RECORD AND GmDE ESTABUSHED^ttAH.CH2l'-i^l868. Dn&IEl)pRp\LEsTWZ.BuiLDlKG %Cl{lTECTUKE,KoUSnIOU)DEGai{JTKlli. Bifsii/Ess AffaThemes OF GeNeR,^^ IKtefiest. PRICE PER YEAR IN ADVANCE EIGHT DOLLARS Published eVerg Saturday Communications sbould be addressed to C. W. SWEET, 14-16 Vesey Street, New York ■ ■ Telephone, Cortlandt 3167 "Entered at the Post Office at New York. N. Y., as second-class mailer." Vol. LXXVI, DECEMBER 23, 1905- No, 1971 INDBJX TO DEPARTMBNT8. AdTertlalns Section. Page. Page. Cement ....................xxvii Law .........................sii! Clay Products ...............xxvi Machinery...................vi Consulting Engineers........vii Metal Work .................xxiil Contractors and Builders.......x Quick Job Directory.........xxxi Electrical Interests ..........ix Real Estaie ...................x\ FireproofiDg................iii Roofers St Roofing Materials., .v Granite ....................xxviii Stone ....................xxviii Heating ....................xxiv Wood Products ..............xxx Iron and Steel................xxii THE real eatate market has not been quite as active during the past week as it was during the week before; but, con¬ sidering tlie approach of the holidays, such a diminution is only natural. The business transacted has, however, preserved the same varied and wholesome character. The chief centers of activity continue to be the fashionable residential section on tbe East Side, and the area affected by the Pennsylvania Ter¬ minal. According to the Sun, speculators are directing their attention more than formerly to Seventh avenue and the streets adjacent to it, because they believe that more money is to be made on Seventh avenue at present prices than on Sixth avenue. Such may be the case; but what property on Seventh avenue in this vicinity needs is some incontestable evidence that it will abandon its present rather disreputable uses and will become an active and respectable business thoroughfare. Once it becomes evident that the avenue is available for improvement with a good class of business building, values will advance rapidly, and a large realty company could effect such an advance merely by announcing its intention of improving a large parcel purchased on the avenue. Improvement of this kind is bound to come eventually, because the Seventh avenue is too central to be passed by in the business growth of that part of the city; but the process could be very much accelerated by enterprising operators. There continues to be a steady absorption by builders of property on Washington Heights, and another im¬ provement has been announced for the Dyckman tract. Once the ball is started in this vicinity, it will roll rapidly and in¬ crease as it rolls. The syndicates who are holding large amounts of property thereabouts cannot do better than to encourage a building movement at the present time. The result would soon justify some temporary sacrifice of money in order to make both builders and residents accustomed to the vicinity. IT is announced that the site proposed for the new Brunswick Hotel will be improved at an early date with a twelve- story loft building,'and that is probably the most sensible dis¬ position which can be made of the property. The changes of the last few years have diminished the value of the block front as the site for a hotel. It is doubtful whether even New York could provide profitable patronage for such hotel any time dur¬ ing the first five years after its construction, because the Knickerbocker, the Belmont and the Plaza will all be opened in the meantime, and will take care of any increase of hotel business. Then, inasmuch as tbe tendency is all in the direc¬ tion of situating every kind of popular and fashionable resi¬ dence further up town, the proposed Brunswick would have suf¬ fered in competition with the new Plaza. The time has gone by for building anything but business buildings on Fifth avenue and Broadway south of 34th street. It might have been sup¬ posed that the Brunswick property would have been bought as the site for a retail dry goods store of high grade; but here again the location lies somewhat south of the best district for such improvements. The decision to build a loft building is in line with the current development of that part of Fifth avenue. The area south of 23d street on which such buildings can be erected has become very much restricted, and we believe that hereafter such buildings will gradually be built on all available sites between 23d and 34th streets on Fifth avenue, Broadway and Madison avenue, and perhaps on Fourth avenue and Seventh avenue as well. Of course the high price o£ land on Fifth avenue and Broadway will tend to send many builders farther west and east; but certain sites on both of these thoroughfares will be available for loft buildings. THE tribute which Controller Grout received from his official associates during the past week was well deserved. Dur¬ ing the four years in which he has been at the bead of the E'inance Department of the City of New York Mr. Grout has made a record for himself which has not been equalled by any man who has held the oflice during the past thirty years. The duties of this office are peculiarly exacting. Its incumbent is primarily responsible for the economical and honest disburse¬ ment of the city's money according to the prevailing laws and ordinances, and Mr. Grout has performed this duty with care¬ ful vigilance and with uncompromising devotion to the public interest- In addition, however, the office requires a man to be something more than the city's flnancial policeman. As a mem¬ ber of the Board of Estimate and of the Rapid Transit Com¬ mission, Mr, Grout has stood throughout for a wise method of expenditure and for a sound municipal policy. It is during his term of office that a method was found to diminish the strain upon the revenues of the city caused by an overgrown sinking fund, and in this way to save over |8,000,000 per annum. It was also during his administration that funds were provided for absolutely necessary city improvements by a general levelling up of the assessed valuation of the real estate in New York. It is safe to say that, without these two financial reforms, the busi¬ ness of the city would have been terribly, almost fatally, ham¬ pered. Mr. Grout's work on the Rapid Transit Commission has been equally valuable. As a member of the Plan and Scope Committee, he played an important part in laying out the com¬ prehensive scheme of subways which will be constructed here¬ after, and he had much to do in determining the wise policy of the Commission in respect to the claims of the several in¬ terests which expect to bid for these transit extensions. In short, he has shown throughout his career an admirable mixture of conservative and progressive ideas. He has given to New York a competent business administration of the city's financial department, and his retirement will be received with the utmost regret by the taxpayers of the city. COMMISSIONER McADOO is right in insisting that the tem¬ porary ropes which have been placed upon the squares of Manhattan in order to regulate the street traffic, should be re¬ placed by permanent posts. The existing police regulations in this respect have been entirely justified during the past year, and arrangements should be made to keep them permanently in force. Such regulations are always annoying to a few people, but they undoubtedly serve to make the flow of traffic at these congested points smoother. They are rendered absolutely neces¬ sary by the stupid planning of our public squares. When these squares were laid out, the streets were allowed to run into each other without the slightest prevision of the congestion which would be eventually caused by such a lay-out, and the whole purpose of tbe regulations is to divert the trafflc away from points of intersection, and to make it take its course around rather than across the squares. This is just what an intelli¬ gent plan would have done; and as an intelligent plan could only be substituted now at an enormous expense, these traffic regulations are tbe next best thing. They should be per¬ manent and effective by means of stone monuments. PRESIDENT TATLOCK, of the Washington Life Insurance Co., has extraordinary ideas about the comparative safety of different investments. He believes it good financial policy to allow insurance companies to speculate in stocks; but he thinks that real estate investments for insurance funds are unwise because real estate was about the "most speculative form of investment known." But if this is so, is it not strange that the savings banks lock up such a large fraction of their assets in real estate mortgages? The obvious answer is, of course, tbat, although money can be invested rashly in real estate, as it can be in any form of security, real estate in the central districts of such a city as New York is the safest form of investment in the world. When an insurance company lends, ds the Washington Life did under its former management, over 100 per cent, of the value of a piece of property on that property, it is, of course, making a very dubious investment; but it isr hardly fair to confuse loans of that kind with any kind of safe and conservative investment. The truth is, that urban land values are the most stable conceivable form of property. To buy unimproved real estate in a large city and on a large scale I