Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 76, no. 1968: December 2, 1905

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RECORD AND GinDE rfii 857 ESTABUSHED-^ W^RRPH 2isr^ 1868. Dev&ieD p Re\L Estah . Boi Lotflc Ap,crfrrEeTdR.E ,t{cfUsnJOLD DEedRATiorf. Birsif/ESSAf/DThemes OF GejJei^'^1 Ii^ei^est. PRICE PER YEAR IN ADVANCE EIGHT DOLLARS Published eVerg Saturdag Communications should bo addressed to C. W. SWEET, 14-16 Vesey Street, New York Telephone, Cortlandt 3157 "Entered al the Post O.ffice at New York, N. Y. as second-claKx mallei:" Vol, LXXVL DECEMBER 2, 1905. No. 1968. INDEX TO DEPARTMENTS. Advertising Section. Page, Cement....................xxv Clay Products............xxiv Contractors and Builders, .viii ' Electrical Interests.........x Fireproofins................iii Granite...................xxvi Heating...................xxii Iron and Steel...............sx Page. Law.......................xii Machinery..................vi Metal Work...............xxi Quick Job Directory.......xxix Real Estate................xiv Stone....................xxvi Wood Products..........xxviii ONE of the most noticeable features of the real estate market during the past week has been the considerable number of private dwellings which have been reported sold. These dwell¬ ings, while situated in all parts of the city, have as usual been located in most instances to the east or southeast of Central Park; aud time only confirms the popularity of that region as the neighborhood particularly of handsome individual resi¬ dences. The demands for sucb buildings is so good at present that there is likely to be a revival of interest in this class of improvement on the part of builders. Indeed the records for the year now drawing to a close indicate the existence already of a much livelier interest in private residences. Last year plans were filed for 61 private dwellings to be erected in Mau¬ battan at a cost of $2,014,500, while the corresponding figures for 1903 were 56 residences to be erected at an estimated cost of $2,881,000. During the current year on the other hand, plans have already been filed for 86 private dwellings, which are estimated to cost some $4,023,000, The increase is not very considerable, and the totals do not compare with those of 1901 and 1902; but it shows a tendency towards improvement; and there is every reason to believe that this tendency will gather headway duriug 1906. There is, however, very little indication of any revival in the construction of low-priced dwellings. Plans have been filed for only two rows of dwellings to be built on Washington Heights—twenty-nine buildings in all—while dur¬ ing the same period about $30,000,000 has been invested in tene¬ ments in the same section. It should be added that of the higher priced dwellings, very few are being erected for sale by specula¬ tive builders; and their construction consequently will not add to the stock of expensive houses, which are being offered for sale. That stock has been very much reduced of late, aud doubtless during the coming year something will be done to replenish it. THB purchase by the New York and New Jersey Tunnel Com¬ pany of three lots in the plot which it requires for its terminal at Broadway and 33d st, indicates that the company proposes to carry out its plans, iu spite of the opposition of the property owners, and presumably it will succeed in doing so, even though it is involved thereby in prolonged litigation. But in any event the property will cost the company considerably higher prices than those at which it has been valued by the corporations' appraisers, and it follows that ia order to get this money back, the company will be obliged to use the property which it is acquiring to the very best advantage. But how can the property be used to the very best advantage? This is a question in which the other property-owners of the neighbor¬ hood are vitally interested, and the answer to which they will await with the liveliest interest. There is, of course, every reason to believe that the trolley company will arrange for the improvement of the land it buys with something more than a station. All that it needs for terminal purposes is the space below the street levels and just as down-town is proposing to build sky-scrapers above its train-shed, so up-town it will adopt some similar means of making its expensive investments in real estate pay. Furthermore it looks as if, between the .Pennsylvania Railroad and the trolley company, the whole block between 32d and 33d sts, Broadway and Tth ave would be occu¬ pied below the surface by railroad tracks.; and on this part o£ its property the Pennsylvania also will not need for the trafflc purposes to build above the surface. Its actual station will be erected on the west side of Seventh ave; and the land on the east side is only needed so as to have sufflcient room to dis¬ tribute its tracks. Consequently, inasmuch as the two com¬ panies- are co-operating, ■ the whole block described above will be available for some kind of big building; and the future de¬ velopment of the neighborhood will depend to some extent on the kind of big building it will be. IT would seem as if this site could not be used except Eor one of two purposes. It is a matter either of a huge place of amusement or of a department store; and of the two a depart¬ ment store possesses apparently the best chance of being a re¬ munerative enterprise. By virtue of its railroad connection this block would become more accessible for more people than any other block in Manhattan, The tunnel to Long Island will put it in immediate connection with the population served by the Long Island Railroad. The Pennsylvania and the trolley tunnels will make it peculiarly convenient to tbe suburban residents of New Jersey. The Subway across 34th st will con¬ nect with the longitudinal tunnels which have been or will be built in Manhattan, and it looks furthermore as if Subways will be constructed both on Broadway and Seventh ave— connecting, that is, with both ends of the block. A site which has been rendered as convenient as this will be from all parts of New York and its neighborhood would be wasted, unless it were used for some eiJlgrprise depending upon the support, of as many people as possible; and "soiji-an enterprise conld not be anything but a department store or a piact--at,.amuspffi£'ir!!' But what purveyor of amusement could use such an enormous areas. New York already has a Madison Square Garden and a Hippodrome, and these two enterprises could not be duplicated without ruinous competition. On the other hand, before the railroads will nave their new termini in full operation. New York will have added six or seven hundred thousand people to its population, and will be in a position to support another de¬ partment store as large as any now in existence. The possibil¬ ities and advantages of such a use of the site are so obvious that, if our premises concerning the intentions of the railroad companies are correct, it seems almost inevitable that this most accessible of all sites would be used for the sort of business enterprise, which depends upon the support of a larger number of people than any other. The Hippodrome attracts at the most 10,000 people a day, whereas a big department store attracts 50,000. IT is generally admitted that trust companies are working a revolution in American banking. The trust company is the logical evolution of the bank, but the former's advantages are not as well known or as widely understood as they should be. The trust company is an admirably organized institution. It combines under one roof many departments under highly specialized management, offering to its customers banking transfer, real estate, bond, trust and foreign departments, thus uniting the functions of a bank and the functions of an incor¬ porated trustee. Another distinguishing feature is that in many instances it permits customers to participate in the profits of the corporation. Last year the trust companies in the State of New York distributed in dividends to their stockholders up¬ wards of nine million and a half dollars. Depositors also re¬ ceived in interest the sum of twenty-six million dollars. Thus depositors without the responsibilities of management share in the successful business of the trust company and have a pro¬ found interest in its progress. As regards a real estate de¬ partment in a trust company the practice in New York differs somewhat from that of some Western cities. In New York nearly every trust company has a greater or lesser volume of real estate business but the management of such property in order to obtain the best results for clients is frequently turned over to real estate agents, brokers and firms of the highest standing and experience. This rule does not apply to matters of minor detail which may be looked after directly from the com¬ pany's office. The president and executive officers of the company naturally exercise a direct supervision over all such property, giving their special instructions to agents and brokers in whose hands it may be placed. The Western Trust Company's method, regarding real estate as exemplified by the Mercantile Trust Company of St. Louis, is to have a regularly equipped real estate department with appraisers, salesmen and rent collectors and thus avoid the necessity of seeking outside assistance in the management of the real property belonging to an estate in