Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 77, no. 1994: June 2, 1906

Text version:

June 2, igo6 RECORD AND GUIDE 1043 mortgages so-called subject to assessment for local taxation. The existence also of three systems of morigage taxation within a period of a little over a year necessarily creates annoyance and perplexities; hut, as time wears on, and as people learn lo appreciate llie advantages of the nc\i' law, the measure will he- come more and more popular. "Much money will, I think, be attracted to investment in the new mortgages, and the rate of interest will gradually fall to a point below that prevailing before the passage of the Annual Tax Law. This process, however, may be somewhat slow, and our real estate friends must not be disappointed if the advan¬ tages are not immediately apparent. "I thank you again, gentlemen, many times for your kindly appreciation of my worl;, and lor tbese beautiful gifts, which I shall always cherish among my most precious possessions." Three Great Contracts. THINK of a builder putting into bis pocket in one week three contracts aggregating about thirty-flve million dol- lare. As Arlhur Brisbane says, Thinkl Tbe George A. Fuller Company, of which Paul Starrett is president, will build the Pennsylvania Depot, the Hudson Tunnel Company's terminal at Church and Fulton sts, and the North or Second Trinity Building on lower Broadway, together with the addition to the First or South Trinity, The one from the Pennsylvania is the largest single building contract ever given out in this city. It will anionnt in value to fifteen or twenty million dollars, and will include everything within tlie huilding lines. The general contractor erects every¬ thing, inchiding the granite and sleel, the first of which comes from tbe Milford quarries by a contract made months ago. and the steel, upwards of 50,000 tons, will be furnished by the American Bridge Co. McKim, Mead Se White are architects of the superstructure, and Westinghouse. Church. Kerr & Co. are tbe engineers. No sub-contracts have yet been issued by the George A. Fuller Company. Work will begin in August, and if he is not interfered with or held up from one cause or another Mr. Starrett will have it finished in about eighteen months. For completing the Hudson terminal buildings the general contractor will receive seven million dollars. They will con¬ tain each twenty-one and twenty-three stories. Underground there will be five stories. With the superstructure from the hands of the Fuller Company, the O'Rourke Engineering and Contracting Co, will build the foundations. Upwards of 28,000 tons of steel will be required, and for this the American Bridge Co. has the contract. W^alls will he built of limestone and brick. There will he two buildings, as Dey st intersects the property, and it cannot be closed, Tbe entire Ciiurcli st frontage of the two blocks between Cortlandt and Fulton will be occupied. HUDSON TERMINAL BUILDINGS, Each building will cover a block front, but tbe stories below the street level will be connected so tbat the station platforms will be two blocks long, north and south. The floors above the Cortlandt st level will be used as offlces. There will he an underground passageway from the tunnel buildings to the Ful¬ ton st station of the Broadway subway. In two years the work Is to be flnished. The annex or addition to the First Trinity Building will have a frontage of twenty-eight feet on Broadway, and will be on the north side, the line of Thames st being changed so as to run between the north and the south Trinity buildings. The new work will have a similarity in architectural style and con- Btruction to the first edifice, whose elegance made it an Instant success as an investmeni. Marble and mahogany will together play the same beautiful part as in tbe olher building, which came from the same architect and builder, Tbe contract for the ,';teel has been given to the American Bridge Co., and amounts to 10,000 tons. The fioor area of tbe present Trinity Building is liJS.OOO square feet. In the completed twin building there will be 380,S73 square feet of additional space, or 052,873 in all. The new structure is lo be completed by May 1, 1907, and the contractor feels quite equal to the task of flnishing it on lime. It will have an exterior wall of Indiana limestone. The Foundation Company has taken , the contract for ' the foundations of both buildings. Solid concrete, installed by pneu¬ matic caissons carried down to bed rock (an average depth of SO feet below the curb), will compose the foundations. In the portion of the building just commenced there will he 89 such caissons in tbe foundations. In the foundations of the portion of the building already completed there are 52 caissons, making a total of 141 for the entire building. The foundations for the Trinity Building as it now stands were also put in by the Foundation Company. When completed tbe entire structure will consist of two buildings of almost equal dimensions, being separated by Thames st. Temple st will be eliminated from Thames to Cedar st. !■■ i 't^S^B _^aJt»' ^m lte««^^^^l'fll^^^^^ !'■>■■ ^9 '■ '■' ■- n^B fc'f-'.,■!-,."' m'' -V^ -'■ ^^ Building Code Revision. At this week's meeting of the Board of Aldermen the resolu¬ tion {introductory No. 88) adopted by the Board January 23, ittstructing the Committee on Buildings lo prepare a Building Code, was rescinded and the following, which has been pending for several months, was adopted instead: Resolved, That, in pursuance of .Section -107 of lhe Greater New York Charter, the Building Committee of this Board be and is hereby directed to prepare and report to this Board a "Building Code" in amended aud revised form, providing therein for all matters concerning, affecting or relating to the con¬ struction, alteration and removal of buildings or structures erecled, or to be erected, in the City of New York; and it is further Resolved, That for the purpose of properly preparing said Building Code the said committee be and it is hereby authorized to engage the "services of the following experts, each of whom shall be a resident of tbe City of New York, and shall have been engaged not less tban five years in bis respective calling, to wit; Two architects, one structural engineer, one sanitary engineer, one engineer recommended by tbe Board of Fire Underwriters, two master builders, two mechanics skilled in building trades, and one laywer, and such clerical assistants as may be neces¬ sary.^Max S. Grifenhagen. John J. Farrell, Jacob Bartscherer, J. Hann. Charles Kuntze. Wm, P, Kenneally. Committee on Buildinga. The intention of the committee is now to formally invite building, engineering and archileclural bodies to each submit a list of five, from which the committee will select one to be a member of the Board of Revision. The Mayor on Realty Values. A thorough and informing statement of the financial con¬ dition of the city was that presented by Mayor McClellan to tbe Board of Aldermen this week. The Mayor finds that the total borrowing capacity of the city for the whole year will be $132,!>fi8,3GS.2S, out of which there will be borrowed about $r:0,Ot:0,000 for general purposes, which is the average for recent years. This would leave approxi¬ mately $83,000,000 available for new improvements. Having a close relation to the ability and intention of the administration lo extend those pubiic improvements needed for tbe development of real eslate, the message has been read with deep attention by property owners, and especially the parts in which the matter of improvements is particularly treated; and it is noted that tbe Mayor gives expression to these views; "The city since 1!*03 has tried to assess its real estate for purposes of taxation at market value as the law requires. This has resulted in furnishing substantial borrowing capacity and has been followed by corresponding Increases in tbe debt. "If the city, in its endeavor to furnish further borrowing ca¬ pacity to enable it to enter upon extensive and expensive im^ provements, raises the valuations from year to year beyond a reasonable amount representing normal increases in values, the time must certainly come when the limit will be reached. Full assessment values, with debt incurred to the limit of the margin thereby created, would mean that the city bad substantially reached its limit of development. "If history is to repeat itself and real estate values suffer a heavy decline through overspeculation, a condition Indicated by the present activity, tbe risk run is tbat the city may be com¬ pelled because of its policy of assessing at full values to make material reductions In such values, thereby placing it in the position of having a debt larger than tbat allowed by tbe Con¬ stitution. It w'ould be several years before such excess could be adjusted. Conservative management is essential If a con¬ tinuing but gradual development of the city is to be maintained."