Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 85, no. 2202: May 28, 1910

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May 28, 1910 RECORD AND GUIDE 1137 SSTMUSHED-^ rf^OH a"."* 186 8. .toAxfl) JO REA.LE:sTAn.Su!Loiffe Af«:i(rrzeTURE,l{ousErioiDlteQafiMiMlL Busd/ess Alto Themes Of GejJer&I.Wtef^esi., PRICE PER YEAR IN ADVANCE BIGHT DOLLARS Communications should he addrefiaed to C. W. SWEET Tublisked Everg Satardap By THE RECORD AND GTJIDE CO. President, CLINTON "W. SWEET Treasurer, F. W. DODGE Vice-Pres. & Genl. Mgr., H. W. DESMOND Secretary, F. T. MILLER Noa. 11 to IB Gast 241Ii Street, New York: City (Telephone, Madison Square, 4430 to 4433.1 '•Entered at the Post Office at New York, N. Y.. as s:-eoml-class matter." Copyrighted. 1910, by The Record & Guide Co. Vol. LXXXV. MAY 2S, 1910. No. 2202 THE real estate market has gradually been growing less and less active and this inactivity has been putting in an appearance earlier this year than usual. Ordinarily June is a month of very lively trading, but unless there is a spurt, it promises to be as dull during the next thirty days as it is ordinarily in July. Apparently the conditions which have been responsible for most of the real estate transac¬ tions of the year have spent their force. The majority of the real estate and building news has been derived from three sources-—from "Washington Heights—from the middle ioft district and from Park avenue east of Central Park. In the case of Washington Heights, as we pointed out last week, there are many vacancies and building loan operators are becoming convinced that it is time to go slow. Several large institutions have been shutting down on their loans in tills district, and the numbers of new improvements planned during the remainder of the current year and the first of the next will be small. A similar condition prevails in the Ioft section. The new loft buildings, that are being erected on Fourth avenue are not renting very well and building loans are becoming more difficult to obtain on prop¬ erty in that particular section. The new builclings completed west of Fifth avenue and Broadway, have rented somewhat better; but there is a general feeling in the trade that it will be better to go more slowly hereafter. There has not been much over-building, but there has been some and a halt for a year or two will do the district good. For the next eigh¬ teen months the mercantile district will contribute much fewer transactions than it bas recently. The building of cooperative and speculative apartments both to the east and west of Central Park will continue with a smaller loss of activity; but tlic uumber of transactions derived from this source is never very large. Finally, the market for real estate as well as retail and wholesale trade is being af¬ fected by a general feeling of insecurity. Well-informed business men are not looking forward with much confidence to the imtiiediale future; and this fact has undoubtedly pre¬ vented the absorption of as much real estate as was ex¬ pected by large business houses for the purpose of securing new and permanent locations. It looks, consequently, as if the coming year would not be very active; and what activ¬ ity there is will be due chiefly to the effect of certain trans- sit improvements, which will either be completed or defi¬ nitely started. IT is an extremely encouraging piece of news that Mayor Gaynor is considering and recommending to his visitors a very important change in the street system of Manhattan, What be wants to do is to run a new avenue from Washing¬ ton Square to 59th street, between Fifth and Sixth avenues. The idea is undoubtedly a very good one and would do more to relieve traffic congestion in Manhattan than any other one new streets which could be laid out. The distance be¬ tween Fifth and Sixth avenues is absurdly great, and a street 100 feet wide could be cut through without making the crosstown blocks on either side excessively short. They would still be 350 feet and over in length. A large amount of traffic could be diverted to the new thoroughfare, and the congestion on Fifth avenue relieved for another genera¬ tion. Desirable, however, a's this 'impxpvement wouy, be, the Record and Guide is. much afraid that it will. .when, studied closely be found to be impracticable. It is estimated tbat some 360 lots would be required for the new street, and that they could be condemned for an average of $100,- 000 a lot, which would make tbe total cost $36,000,000; and the Mayor believes that the improvement would be so beneficial to abutting property owners that all or most of this expense could be assessed upon them. Both of these calculations involve very dubious elements. The property could not he bought for anything like $36,000,000. A valu¬ ation of $100,000 a lot would he the minimum not the aver¬ age price which would have to be paid. Practically all lots •within 400 feet of Fifth avenue, on the West are worth $4,000 a front foot even where they are improved with old brown stone dwellings. But the larger proportion of them have been reimproved either with modern residences or with tall business buildings. It is probable that as much as two hundred of these lots would cost over $200,000 each with their present buildings on them. Furthermore, there are certain streets such as lith, 23d, 42d, and 59th streets, on which the land values without improvements run any¬ where from $125,000 to $350,000 a lot; and it is probable that a conservative estimate of the cost of condemning the required area would make it run over $75,000,000. Neither would it be possible in equity to assess any considerable pro¬ portion of this expense on neighboring property-owners. Consider the position of a property owner, who was left with a lot facing the new avenue. He would own, let us say, a plot 100 feet on the avenue by 25 on the street. Such a plot would be useless for improvement with a modern fire-proof building. He would either be forced to buy ad¬ ditional property or to sell out to some one who did; and the task of piecing together a large plot would be so costl;; that the value of the improvement to the property-owner would be much diminished. If he owned more than one lot, it would mean that tbe property was already improved with a building facing the street, which would have to be entirely rebuilt, in order to adapt it to its new situation on an avenue. Damages which would accrue from these causes would eat up a large portion of the benefit to the individual property-owner; and they would be increased by the loss of income during the process of reconstruction. If the city tried to push such a scheme through, it would be involved in a large number of lawsuits and eventually in an impos¬ sible expense. THE Record and Guide does not believe that such a plan would be economically practicable even if the city had the legal power to condemn, not only the one hundred feet needed for tbe street, but, one hundred feet more' on each side, which could be subsequently sold at a profit. The city could conceivably avoid some losses, in which individual property-owners would be involved; but, it could not avoid the loss of being obliged to throw away many miMion dol¬ lars worth of costly buildings, which would not be designed and planned for their new locations. Ten years ago Huch an avenue could be run through at an expense which might not have been prohibitive; but today the process of re¬ improvement has been carried too far and the increase in ground values has been too great. At the same time the iuterest wbich Mayor Gaynor has exhibited in this essential matter is most encouraging, and presumably it will lead to a careful study of the problem and the working out of some practicable method of relieving trafflc congestion. In the first place, there are certain street improvements, such as the southerly extension of Sixth and Seventh avenues, the expense of which would not be prohibitive. In the second place, a great deal can be done to improve the traffic bear¬ ing capacity of existing thoroughfares; and it is along these lines that tbe least expensive and most remunerative im¬ provements may be planned. Stoop privileges should be gradually revoked on all crosstown streets whose traffic is increasing to large proportions, and on avenues, such as Madison, which are becoming more and more burdened witb vehicles, and by these means tbe roadways could be widened. The next step would be to construct foot-ways of metal and glass on congested avenues like Fifth avenue, which could be used for the accommodation of pedestrians, and there¬ after the existing side-walks could be still further nar¬ rowed and the roadways widened. The same method could be used on other avenues and on cross-town streets when¬ ever the congestion justified it. In all probability remedies of tbis kind can be used to alleviate the congestion for a great many years to come. Of course there would still be delays at all points at which large streams of trafflc inter¬ sected; but obviously the new avenue proposed by Mayor Gaynor would leave this aspect of the matter almost if not quite, as troublesome as it is at present, and it will tend hereafter to become stUl more troublesome, because thg