Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 75, no. 1927: February 18, 1905

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February i8, 1905 RECORD AND GUIDE ESTA3U"HED ^ (^ARPH SVT^ 1B6S. De/otiD 10 Pf\l CsTArt. BuiLDiflG i^RCjIrrECTURE ,t{ciusErioio DBKUfnod. Business aiJdThelies or CEfjER^ iKTtJ^si. PRICE PER YEAR IN ADVANCE SIX DOLLARS Published eVerg Satnrda.v Communication a should te addresseil to C. W. SWEET, 14-16 Vesey Street. New Yorfc J. T. LINDSEY, Bualneas Manager Telephone, Cortlandt 8157 "Entered at ihe Post Ogtce at New York, N. Y.. as second-class matter." Copyright by the Real Estate Record and Builders' Guide Company. Vol. LXXV. FEBRUARY IS, 1905. •••••••^nHr*************** * ****************** ANNOUNCEMENTS The Record and Guide is now issued as two papers: 1. The Record and Guide—Manhattan and the Bronx edition; 2. The Record and Guide—-Brooklyn edition. Tbe former wilt be supplied to readers and subscribers, at present, for $6.00 a year, or 15 cents per copy. The latter will be sold for $3.50 a year, or 10 cents per copy. Those who desire both papers will be supplied for $8.00 a year. Any subscriber, whose paid subscription is still cur¬ rent, may, by dropping us a postal card stating his de¬ sire, obtain both editions without any extra charge what¬ soever during the life of his existing paid subscription. Of course, at the end of the subscription, it will be open to him to elect which edition he needs, paying for one or the other, or both as the circumstances may be. i BACK COPIES I J After March 1st, back copies of the Recora and Guide will J + be sold as follows: * T. Copies one week to one month oM....... 25o. each. J * Copies more than one month old........ 50c. each. M- f Subscriptions, however, may be daleJ ba:;k during current J 5 twelve months without extra charge. 3- I t THE Stock Market remains persistently irregular and inter¬ mittently strong. It cannot go down at all; but neither can it go up very much. There is no plain prospect of an early change in this condition of things. The general financial and business situation alters neither for the better nor the worse. Busi¬ ness is good, without being anything extraordinary. Profits are fair. There is nothing unwholesome about the character of the business, and nothing threatening in the prospects. The business men of the country are occupied chiefly in attending to their special affairs, and aro not devoting much attention to speculation in stocks or in anything else. If they are investing at all. they are investing in real estate and in new building, which is exceptionally heavy al! over the country. The prices of stocks are not at¬ tractive from the investment point of view. Very few good railroad securities can be made to yield as much as four per cent. Tlie best thing that can happen to the country for the present is a continuation of this condition—a continuation tliat is, of the interest of business men in their own business [ind in real estate. 500. The oharacter of this business is not. however, as good as ir. was two or three weeks back. 11 consists chiefly of vacant lets on Washington Heigiits and in the upper Lenox Ave. section. The speculation in this property is assuming some¬ thing the same extravagant character as that which marked the Eipeculation in Bronx property last December. Prices are ad¬ vancing rapidly; the same parcel is sold and sold, always at an apparent proflt; and under the influence of the enthusiasm which this process arouses, the purchasers begin to lose consideration c£ the present value of the property for improvement. This is the weakness of the movement. The property is not passing into the bands of responsible builders; and the building move¬ ment is not keeplDg pace with the real estate speculation. The speculators would do well to moderate their bidding up of prices, until t'.ie amount and character of the prospective build¬ ing on the lieights, which will be undertaken this Spring, is determined. So far the plans flled refer only to flve-story tenements on or near Amsterdam Ave. Apart from the lot speculation, there have not been many transactions of interest. Of these, the.most interesting was the purchase of the northwest corner of Madison Ave. and SSth St., by a speculative syndicate with Mr. Chas. T. Barney at its head. This sale is taken to mean that there may be a business invasion of this choice residential district; but we do not believe that any such in¬ vasion is threatened as yet. Mr. Barney's own residence is on the corner of 38th St. and Park Ave,; and it is wholly improbable that he v^ould take any part in an operation which looked In the direction of introducing either a business or an apartment building into this immediate vicinity. LAST weelt we commented on the astonishing activity of a leal estate market in which over 300 sales are reported in six days. This week the wonder rather waxes than wanes. Ic spite of the fact that Monday was a holiday, the transactions of the week aggregate over 350; and this total omits many "wash" sales, which appeared in the daily journals. So far as possible, it includes only genuine transactions, which have been sufflcient in number'to break all previous records. It looks as if during March, April and May tbe totals might run up to IT is very much to be hoped that the Employers' Association will bnd some method of modifying the arbitration agree¬ ment, so as to make it more acceptable to the unions without at the same time emasculating what virtue it has. There can be no doubt that the agreement has failed in one essential re¬ spect. Its operation has given the unions the impression that it works in favor of the employers and against the interest of the mechanics. Whether this impression is just or not, its per¬ sistence will be fatal iu the long run to the success of the arbi¬ tration agreement. It is all very well to force such an agree¬ ment down tbe throats of the unions once or twice; but the time must come when the agreement must depend for its swal¬ lowing upon its own palatability. If it does not become palat¬ able, it must in the long run be abandoned. What the building trade of New York needs is not the distrust and suspicion be¬ tween the employer and the mechanic, screened by a specious agreement, which will be broken at the first opportunity; but some stable bases of mutual adjustment. It looked at one time as if the arbitration agreement provided this basis of adjust¬ ment; but such did not prove to be the case. If it can be modified to serve the purpose, let it be modiflecf. On the other hand, ahouid it stiil arouse suspicion and distrust after modifica¬ tion, it should certainly be abandoned; and the flght be carried on in the open. The next best thing to a stable peace is a fight which is waged for a good purpose, and which when over wil! really settle something. The mechanics know what they want—which is. in brief, all that they can get. The employers sre not sure as yet just what they want, but certainly the only way they can get it is by standing together on some policy which is fair to the unions and to all honest employers. THE lawyers of Manhattan seem to be hopelessly divided as to the location which they prefer for the new Court House. The existing commission cannot make up their mind which site south of Franklin St. it is prepared to recommend. Three of them favor the occupation of comparatively cheap property on Mulberry Bend Park, while two of them believe that it will pay the County and beneflt the profession to condemn the area between the Hall of Records and Broadway. Apparently a luajority of the Bar Association also favors this location, be¬ cause it passed a resolution during the week, advising against the selection of a site north of Franklin Street, and favor¬ ing one near the Hall of Records. But the majority in favor of this resolution was small, and this fact deprives the expression of opinion of much force. Consequently the whole question re¬ mains as open as ever, and the Legislature should pass the permissive bill removing the disability of the commission to select a site north of Franklin St. If, after the disability is re- n^oved, the commission is unable to make up its mind, and se¬ cure sufficient support for its decision, it should be discharged from its duties. The fact of the matter is that a commission of this kind is usually constituted in the wrong way. The selec¬ tion of a site for a monumental building, such as the new County Court House, is a matter, in relation to which other counsel should be sought than that of the legal profession alone. Its situation concerns not only the lawyers and the judges, who