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Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 78, no. 2000: July 14, 1906

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July 14, 1906 RECORD AND GUIDE 51 Dented pRf^LESTAJE.BuiLOIj/O AfWlflTEirVRP,HoUSQfOUlDEGCI[(J1TW{. Bi/sii/EasAftoThemesofGEftoV'l W'hir.esi. PRICE PER YEAR IN ADVANCE EIGHT DOLLARS TmbHsfitd *f*rv Smturday CommunUfttions should ba addreBsed to C. W, SWEET. 14-16 Ve»ey Street. New York 4 Te ephoni. CortUi idt 315- T "Entered at tli* Fost Office at A'cw Tork. N. T. 0.1 second-elafs matter." Vol. LXXVHI- JULY 14, nm. No. 20U0 INDEX TO DEPARTMENTS. Advertising Section. Page. Page. Cement ....................ixlll Law.........................il Consulting Engineers ..........x Lumber..................ixvlU Clay Products ................xxll Machinery ...................Iv Contractors and Builders ......v Metal Work ................xvll Electrical Interests ..........viil Quick Job Directory ........xitvil Fireproofing .................11 Real Estate .................xiv Granite ....................xxlv Roofers & Roofing Materials.xxvi Heating ....................xx Stone .....................xxiv Iron and Steel ..............xvlil Wood Products ...........xxviii The Record and Oiiide has opened an Uptown Office in the Metropolitan "Annex,'" Nos. 11-13 East 2'lth Street, in order to accommodate its customers, so many of whom are located in the central and northern parts of the city, and at the same time to provide additional quarters for its oton increased staff and for the Architectural Record and "iS'wceCs" Index. O UMMER liulness characterizes the stock market, which acts ^-^ decidedly as though the turning-point had been passed, and without new hear ammunition it shoultl gradually advance. The average rise in the principal stocks of three points or more since the low prices of a fortnight ago has been maintained. Money is easier, and ought to cease to be a matter of fear. In the year 1903 the same money conditions prevailed in July. Time money then was difficult to obtain, rates being 6 per cent, for even short time loans. Lenders with the recollection of the high call rates of 1902 behind them were unwilling to put out their funds on time, looking forward, if not hoping, for a repeti¬ tion of the squeeze in the autumn of 1903. The result was that call money was a drag, ranging from II/2 to 2^ per cent., and the expected squeeze never came. That year the banks specu- Sated in money and lost, and this year it is not unlikely they may do the same. The money markets of the world have often settled down into a conviction and then waited for the event that failed to materialize. Railroad earnings continue phenom¬ enally large, and it would seem they must so continue. The absence of paralleling by reason of adverse railroad legislation leaves the existing railroads in indisputed possession of their respective fields, and so it may happen that what seemed to be for the worst may turn out to be the best for the railroads, because it is a certainty that during the first years of the Work¬ ing and the test of the new rate law not one dollar of capital Can be obtained for a new railroad. The great good luck of the country "with respect to crops continues. The wheat crop not only promises to be, with one exception, the largest in the his- ftory of the country, but the quality is the best. The figures indicated are 723,000,000 bushels. The greatest year was the harvest of 1901, when the yield was 749,000,000 bushels, A COMPARISON of the building operations in the first half ■*^ of this year with the operations of the corresponding por¬ tion of last year, as represented by the records on file, discloses that in value the works ot 1906 exceed those of the first half of 1905 by some fourteen million dollars, but that in the num¬ ber of new buildings projected the two periods are about equal This IS -taking into account Brooklyn and the Bronx as well as Manhattan. As 1905 was the most wonderful year in building that New York has yet known, the fact that, measured by the value of the works projected, the current year has thus far sur¬ passed It,; is highly significant to business interests at large Capacity after it has once been enlarged to meet requirements needs thereafter be fully employed in order to avert losses; ^nd_.the capacity of the building and allied industries of New York ha^ been so greatly extended of late that a lowering of the rate of building would be a serious matter. Statistics do, not always reveal the full and real inwardness of things aadl observation must then supplement them. In this case, it may be said that they stand for projects rather than fulfilments, and that in actual labor and material put forth there may have been, and probably was, a difference in favor of the first half of 1905 over the first half of 1906; for the letting down in some lines during the months of May and June was generally re- markefl, and ascribed to the effects of the new mortgage law. During the s-ui'oud quarter of Uie year plans were filed in Man¬ hattan for 596 new buildings of a value of 539,047,430, as against 723 new buildings of a value of $o5,697,212, during the second quarter of 1905. The number of tenements planned during the three months just past was 397, as against 362 in the correspond¬ ing period of 1905. The number of office buildings planned was tbe same in each quarter, but there was a great difference in value in favor of those planned this year. The alteration work scheduled in April, May and June of this year exceeded in value the alterations planned in the corresponding months of 1905, but affected a fewer number of buildings. The total value of thp building work planned in Manhattan during the last qiuarter was $44,891,925, to compare with $40,915,531, which was the rec¬ ord made in the second quarter of 1905. For the first three months of this year the buildiiig operations of Manhattan (in¬ cluding both new structures and alterations) amounted in esti¬ mated cost to $40,206,746, while for the similar period in 1905 the total estimated cost of all operations in this borough was but ?28,]31,714. The grand total for 1906, from January 1 to July 1, of all operations in Manhattan is eighty-five million dol¬ lars, as against sixty-nine millioa for 1905. With the annua! mortgage tax law out of existence, tlie difficulties connected with financing operations, so far as they were interfered with by the old law, should disappear, and with the new capital that the exempt mortgage securities of this city should attract, we can foresee nothing but a continuance of good conditions, and very probably a better record for the full year than was credited to 1905. TT is admitted that negotiations are well advanced towards the ■^ purchase of the Burton property on Fifth avenue between Thirty-eighth and Thirty-ninth streets by a retail house now doing business below Twenty-third street. It is possible that the present negotiations wili fall through; but there can be no doubt that some such disposition will be made of this property. It ia one of the few plots on Fifth avenue owned by one interest, which, when improved, would be large enough to accommodate the business of a big genera! store. Containing as it does some 27,000 Square feet, it would, when improved with a ten-story building, contain abundant space for the business such as Van- tine's or Arnold & Constable's, and there is not another plot on the avenue of which the same statement would be true. When Mr. Altman completed his purchases, he also secured the block front owned by the late Marshall Field, doubtless for the purpose of anticipating any possible competition; and it may be doubted whether another large plot could be pieced together except at an Impossible cost. It took Mr. Altman many years of patient accumulation to buy up the site on which he is building at present, and prices have advanced considerably since he com¬ pleted his purchases- The Burton plot is doubtless held at a good, stiff figure, but it was for the most part accumulated at lower prices, and its owners should be able to realize a hand¬ some profit Without asking a sum which even a large and profit¬ able business could not afford to pay. One thing which makes it so difflcult to secure a large plot on Fifth avenue is the in¬ creasing number of ta!! buildings that are being erected. Three years ago the avenue was improved for the most part with re¬ constructed four and five-story brownstone houses, but since then increasing values have compelled the building of sky¬ scrapers, particularly on the corners; and these skyscrapers are generally leased in part for periods of twenty years or longer. The business men who several years ago had the forethought to secure permanent locations are now being rewarded, while those who neglected to do so are being correspondingly punished. The pressure is becoming so great that doubtless the tide of Fifth avenue business will soon begin to overflow not only, as at present, to the side streets, but to Madison avenue, at least between Twenty-sixth and Thirty-fourth streets. It is only necessary for some important shop to secure a location on this part of Madison avenue and the others will soon follow along. NOW tbat the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court has approved the routes for new subways laid out by the Rapid Transit Commission, all the legal formalities necessary to the establishing of the new routes have been complied with. What now remains to be seen is whether the new system has been framed so as to tempt private capital. Nobody expects, of course, that bidders will be found for all of the routes that have just been approved. The plan was framed at a time when