Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: [v. 92, no. 2372]: August 30, 1913

Text version:

REAL ESTATE AND NEW YORK, AUGUST 30, 1913 ■■■■■■■^^ ■iiiiiiiMiiniiiiiiHl THE NEWEST UPTOWN DEPARTMENT STORE Stern's, in Forty-Second Street, is a Notable Example of Modern Store Archi- I tecture—Fire Towers, a Motor Car Vestibule, and Other Novel Features. ■ M lllllllllllllllllllillMllllllllllllillli THE announcement that Stern Broth¬ ers would move to 42d street marked the beginning of a rapid advance in values in that interesting crosstown highway, the future of which had there¬ tofore been largely a matter of specula¬ tion. According to brokers familiar with the neighborhood, stores there are worth at deast 50 per cent, more than they were renting at before it became known that a site had been acquired for a department store of the first rank. In¬ deed, in one building in the same block with the new Stern's, ground floor space which formerly brought $5,000 a y^ar has recently been leased for $11,- 000. The increment in values has been conspicuous all the way from the Grand Cen¬ tral Terminal to Si.xth avenue. It i s attributable mainly to the conviction, first confirmed by the advent of .SteDi Brothers, that this part of 42d street is to be a high-class reta,l center, a convic¬ tion since justi¬ fied through the leasing of a 42d street frontage by another great re¬ tail house, name¬ ly, the Rogers Peet Company. No doubt cour¬ age was demand¬ ed to undertake the transfer of a business like Stern's to a pioneer locality, for, other things being equal, the advertising outlay for attracting customers is presum¬ ably very much increased when a de¬ partment store takes up a situation apart from an established shopping center. But the advantages of the site chosen are ob¬ vious, and with one or two big stores to assume the initiative in drawing custom, the middle part of 42d street may be expected to become as much frequented by shoppers as is 34th street. In fact, there are many who believe that 42d street is destined to be the leading cross- town shopping street in the city. Near Fashionable Residence Quarter. The "carriage trade" is one of the most profitable sources of income of high-class department stores. The term is allusive rather than definite. Though sometimes restricted to the custom of people who do their shopping in car¬ riages and motor cars, it is more gen¬ erally understood to refer in a broad way to the patronage of the wealthy classes living within walking or driving distance. The carriage trade, owing to the rapid extension of business below 42d street, originates to-day for the most part north of that line. The new Stern's is convenient of access, whether from the south or the north, to that element of the city's population which is synony¬ mous with wealth and fashion. As for STBlt-X" liUOTHERS' XEW STOUK. about fourteen acres of floor Bpaoe. and is one of the most carefully planned as well as one of the biggest department stores in the world. vehicles coming down Fifth avenue from the private house districts adja¬ cent to the park and from the fashion¬ able uptown hotels and apartment houses, these may reach the new Stern's on 43d street without becoming entan¬ gled in the congestion of street car traffic at 42d street. In the Foremost Transportation Center. .Another main source of profit is the trade which comes by local, interbor¬ ough, .suburban and through railway lines. For this trade a 42d street loca¬ tion is of the greatest possible value. The middle part of 42d street is the ob¬ jective point of, or is crossed by more important transportation lines than any other stretch of thoroughfare of the same length, and it will presently re¬ ceive the traffic of the McAdoo tunnel extension, of the Belmont tunnel and of the Broadway subway, which is an ex¬ tension of the entire Brooklyn Rapid Transit system. Within the space of a few blocks 42d street will receive or in¬ tercept an unequalled volume of traffic not only from the Greater City, but from its suburbs, including all in West¬ chester County and Connecticut, the great majority in New Jersey, and many on Long Island. As for long distance travel, it mat¬ ters little, perhaps, whether the Grand Central Terminal has more of that than the Pennsylvania Station. What does count is that 42d street is in the heart of the fash¬ ionable hotel and club house dis¬ trict, where the bulk of the well- to-do shoppers from a distance put up when in the city. Finally, the new Stern's be¬ ing opposite Bry¬ ant Park, is as¬ sured of a per¬ petual easement of light. The middle part of 42d street as has been seen, meets the re¬ quirements as to location de¬ manded for the establishment of big high-class re¬ tail houses. 11 is adjacent to the wealthy residence population, per¬ manent and tran¬ sient, and it is, or will be, the city's main ob¬ jective for sub¬ urban as well as interborough, trans¬ portation. In what manner will the establishment of stores of the rank of Stern's react on the neighborhood? The answer will be made clear by giving a brief outline of the evolution of the de¬ partment store business, and such an account will also help to explain the peculiar and interesting architectural problems involved in the planning of the new Stern's. The Department Store Business. Tlie principal sources of information concerning the department store busi¬ ness are the report of the United States Industrial Commission, of 1901, and cer¬ tain monographs by German econ¬ omists. The latest of these is Johannes Wernicke's "Warenhaus," published in 1911. According to the Industrial Commis¬ sion's report, "the Bon Marche, of