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Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 77, no. 1975: January 20, 1906

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January 20, 190G KECORD AND GUIDE 97 ^ ESTABUSHED'^ MARpH^U.^ 186S. Dented p f^L EsTAlT,BuiLdi>''c %&>(itecti:r,e ,}{ausEUOLD DECOfiATioi*, BOSII/eSS AffcTHEMEii orGEjiERfiV ll^TEI^EST. PRICE PER YEAR IN ADVANCE EIGHT DOLLARS Pubtisfied eVere Saturday Communications should be addressed to C. W. SWEET. 14-16 Vesey Street. New York Telopboiio. Cortlandt 3157 "Entered at ihe fosl O.'Sice al New Yorli, if. Y., as secored-dass mailer," Vol. LXXVIL JANUARY 20, 1906. No. 1975 INDEX TO DEPARTMENTS. Advertising Section. Page. Page. Cement ...................xxvil Law......................xiii Clay Products.............xxvl Machinery..................iv Consulting Engineers..........ix Metal Work................xxlii Contractors and Builders .......x Quick Job Directory........xxxi Electrical Interests ...........vi Real Estate.................xv Fireproofing .................ii Roofers & Roofing Materials, .xii Granite.................xxviii Slone....................xxviii Heating...................xxiv "Wood Products.............xxx Iron and Steel.............xxii WHILE the current stock market is undoubtedly one in which stocks bought at a lower level are being distrih- uted, it by no means follows that there is anything insecure about the current situation. The process of gradually increasing the price of securities has occupied about eighteen months, and the process of distributing them widely at the present or at a higher level may well take a year. It all depends, of course, upon tlie maintenance of earnings, the course of general busi¬ ness, and the degree of caution with which the bull campaign ,'b continued. As to the course of general business, there la no reason to anticipate any diminution of activity during the com¬ ing spring and the early summer, A crop failure might there¬ after give a decided check to tlie expanding earnings of the rail¬ roads and to the purchasing power of their customers, btit no one can anticipate what may take place in business six months ahead. It is sufficient that business is active and profitable at the present time without any obvious signs of inflation. If. consequently, the stock market becomes dangerous during tlie next few months, it will be because prices are being forced up too rapidly, antl are allowed to depart too far from a conserva¬ tive estimate of current values. We do not believe that any such condition has occurred as yet. It may have taken place In a few securities, but, as a rule, the current level of values af¬ fords room for further advances, provided they are cautiously brought about. There has been no indication of a runaway market during the week. Certain securities have made sharp advances; but those are just the securities in which advances were most justified. The buying, while large, is by no means indiscriminate. There are undoubtedly a large number of people who believe that prices will reach a somewhat higher level, and who have the money and the will to back their con¬ victions. They are likely to control the stock market some time to come. THE most noticeable development recently in the real estate market has been the buying for improvement in the vic¬ inity of Broadway and Cortlandt street, to which more speciiic reference is made elsewhere. There has also been some very good buying on some of the side streets down town, and most of this purchasing has been done by speculators and operators with a view to improvements. The only other center of pro¬ nounced speculative activity continues to be the district in the vicinity of the Pennsylvania and the trolley terminals. The tunnel company keep adding to the list of properties which it needs for its station, and it is stated that negotiations are under way for the erection of a department store over its train shed. That some such disposition will be made of the property seems inevitable; but it is probable that no decision in reference lo the matter can be made yet. Speculative buying continues to be lively on Seventh avenue and on the side streets in that vicinity, and prices are steadily advancing, A number of loft buildings will probably be erected on tlie side streets during the coming spring, and the whole neighborhood will receive a further boost as soon as the contracts are let for the Seventh avenue-Broadway Subway. Old tenements on the middle East and West Sides are also being sold in large numbers, and many indications of act¬ ivity may be noted on Ninth avenue between 14th and 34th streets. It is one of the most wholesome signs of the existing condition of real estate in New York that property on streets and avenues which has been dead for years is again showing symptoms of life. THIS Is the time of year when the purchases of property are made down town for the purpose of building offi^.e buildings during the summer, and from the announcements which have recently been made it is apparent that there will be a good deal of activity during 1906 in this class of building. Apparently both the Adams Express Company and the Singer Manufacturing Company will improve their holdings on Broad¬ way, while other offices will shortly be erected on Broad street near Beaver, aud on Wall street near William. But most of the building will take place somewhat further north. There has been comparatively little new construction of late immediately norlh of Maiden lane; but the scarcity of available sites further south is concentrating attention on this part of Broadway and its vicinity. The example of the Title Guarantee & Trust Co. is being followed. The City Investing Company has pieced to¬ gether a fine and large site on Cortlandt street and Greenwich street, aud the United States Realty Co. has been buying on Broadway between Cortlandt and Dey. All of these plots may not be improved during the current year; but they are certainly being bought because the existing buildings are out of date, and tlie erection of new ones will not be long delayed. There is every reason why new skyscrapers should be constructed in good central locations. The ever-Increasing business of the financial district is again insistently demanding more space for its use, aud the activity of general business keeps existing buildings very full. During the next two months many additional announce¬ ments of this kind may be confidently expected. LITTLE by little it is being divulged in the daily papers what the City of New York has to expect by way of increased rapid transit from the Belraont-Ryan combination. The officials of the companies frankly state that it was the desire to avoid building competing and unprofilable lines, which was the chief motive of the consolidation, and that the combination has no intention of bidding upon all the new routes laid out by the Commission. The only new subways in which it is interested are a three-track line running up the East Side from 42d along Lex¬ ington avenue aud a four-track line south from 42d street on Seventh and Eighth avenues and Broadway. This announce¬ ment will disappoint many property owners who are interested in some of the other proposed routes; but it cannot be said that the decision is unreasonable. The immediate construction of all the proposed subways would certainly be a very unprofitable business, and one cannot ask capitalists to invest money without the expectation of a substantial return. The upper Bast Side and the lower West Side routes mentioned above are the subways most urgently needed at the present time, and if this city can secure their early construction from the rapid transit company on favorable terms, it will have obtained as much as can be ex¬ pected for the next two or three years. The question is, whether the combination is prepared to offer sufficiently favorable terms, and this question cannot be answered with any certainty. The only inducements which the combination will offer are, accord¬ ing to the newspapers, (1) the construction of the subways with¬ out the use of the city's credit, and (2) certain unspecified trans¬ fer privileges. These are all very well, but they do not touch the heart of tne matter. What the public wants to know is. How long the operating contract will run, and how much rent will be paid? The success of the existing subway has been such that the city has every reason to demand a larger compensation than the one which it is now receiving. The profit on this con- ti'act has already amounted to about $50,000,000, and no one can tell how much more it will become during the next seventy- five years. The lease must be for a shorter term, and there must be periodical readjustments of the rental charge. The contract with the New Jersey Tunnel Co. for the Sixth Avenue Subway contained provisions looking in this direction, and the new longitudinal subways now proposed should be worth more than the short tunnel under Sixth avenue from Ninth street to Greeley square. It Js very much to be hoped that the officials of the traction companies will agree to pay a fair value for these new subways. THE Bridge Commissioner, Mr. Stevenson, stated his deter¬ mination recently to do away entirely with the terminals, which encumbered the plans of his predecessor, and this decision is worthy of all approval. But we fear that he will have some difficulty in making it good. The terminals cannot be dispensed with except by means of connecting rapid transit tracks, run-