Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 80, no. 2066: October 19, 1907

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October îg, 1907 RECORD AND GUID] _ ESTAEaJSHED-^MJWpHSLií^ISSS. "Dev&îED P RpKLEsTAjE.BuiLDiffc AíĩpiíiTEenniE ,Kouszîlou> Decohatioií. Bl/snfeSS AIÍdThEHES bfGEJÍEnfiV ĩtÍTCR.E31. PRICE PER YEAR IN ADVANCE EIGHT DOLLARS Conimunications Ehoĩild be addreased to . C. W. SWEET a fubtished EVery Satardap By THE RBCORD AND GUIDE CO. President, CLINTON W. SWEET Treasurer, F. W. DODGE Vice-Pres. íi: Genl. Mgr., H. "W. DESMOND Secretary, F. T. MIL.LER Nos. 11 to 15 East 34tli Street, New York City (Telephone, Madison Square, 4430 to 4433.) "Eiitcrctl at the Post Offiee at Neto York, N. 7., as srooiiil-clii.^s iiitiltci:" Copyrighted, 1907, by The Record & Guide Co. Vol. LXXX. OCTOBER 19. 1907. No. 2066. INDEX TO DEPARTMENTS. Advertising Section. Page. ' Page. Cement ......................xvi Lumber ..i...................xx Clay Products ...............xvii Macbinery ...................xiv Consultiûg Engiueers ..........vi Metal Work ................xiĩi Contractors and Buiiders ___iv Quick Job Directory ..........xx Electrical Interests ___;.....xv Real Estate ..................ix Fireproofing....................ii Roofers & Roofins ÎVĨateríals ..xv Granite .....................xviii Stone .......................xviii Iron and Steel ..............viil Wood Products ..............xxi McAdoo Terminal BuildÍDg 'IT SEEMS TO BB SBTTLED tliat tlie spaee aijove the trolley terminal at Sixth Avemie and Thirty-third Street is to be improved with a huge hotel, and this decision will prohably have au import- ant effiect upon the value of property in that vicinity, Probably the anuouncement that a depart- ment store was to be consLructed on the property would have been more helpful to neishboring property owners; but a hotel is the next best thing to a department store. A great terminal such as that of the Pennsylvania Rail- road Company is sure to demand an abundant supply of hotel accommodations in its neightiorhood, anrt such is all the more lilĩely to be the case when the neighborhood is so central tliat in any event a hotel should be a profltable business enterprise. The owners of the Imperial and the iMartinique have botk been so well satisfied with the in- come of their original buildings that they have either bui!t or else arranged to build large additions, and projects are already being broached for a number of similar improve- menta, The restatirant business of any good hotel in this neighborhood ought to be ĩarger than that enjoyed by the hotels near the Grand Central Êtation. and they would be more convenient both for business men and pleasure seekers- All this is tolerably obvious, hut th'e doubtful question concerns the effeet of these terminals and hoteîs in the side stréets nearby, and on Seventh Avenue. ĩn the ordinary course of events the side streets between Twenty-third and Thirty-fourth, west of Sixth Avenue, would be improved with a cheaper grade of loft buildings. BuildiHgs of this class are already being erected in the twenties, and there is every reason to suppose that Seventb Avenue would eventually be covered with a hetter grade of the same sort of strueture. The completion of the terminals and the erection of several large hotels might. however, check this tendency by making the property more valuable for other purposes. Five years from now the number of people who sleep and eat in this neighborhood will be inereased by íhousands over what it is at present: and hundreds of thousands will enter or depart from the termznals every week. The preseuce of many additional money-spenders should make the neighborhood the best in New York íor the retail trade, and it may welĩ keep it alive as an amusement centre. There seems to he no good reason why Seventh Avenue should not beeome a possible site for theatres; and the same is true of the side streets. The only transit deflciency under which the neighborhood suffers is the lack of Subway eonnectíons; and that is cer- tain to be remedied în a íew years. When it is remedied the EO-called Pennsylvania Terminaí district wiĩl be more accessible to niore people than any other neighborhood in the eity. New Subway Possibilities THE CHAIRMAN OF THE PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION, Mr. Willcox, has issued a statement during the week in whieh he asserts that the work of the Commission has in eertain respects been misunderstood. It has not been engaged merely iû an investigation o£ the affairs of the Interborough- Metropolitan Company. It has also been devoting a suit- abie proportion of its time to the questions of new Subway routes; and the resulta of its deliberations on this very importaut matter would in the course of time be given to the publie. All this is reassuring, but it is one of the misfortunes of the constitution of the Commission that its powers iu this respect are very limited, and that it can accomplish nothing without the co-operation o£ the Mayor and the Board of Bstimate. The most serious problems eonnected with the laying out of new Subways are finan- cial, and these problems eannot be solved without the es- tablishment of a working agreement between the Board of Estimate and the Commission. It is the business of the Com- mission, i£ possible, to ĩay out Subways which ean be built, and the kind of Subways which can be built depends upon the corporation, public or prîvate, which ia to build them. The new Subways must be arranged, that is, either to connect with the existing Subway or to be independent of it. I£ they are to be connecting, the existing law must be changed, and the lease lengthened, so that the Inter- borough Company can obtain a security which would be a baais for a sufficient loan. On the other hand, an indé- pendent Subway would have to be buĩlt and perhaps oper- ated by the eity; and how is the city to flnance sueh an undertaking? These are questions whîch, as we have pointed out, are more within the proper provinee of the Board of Estimate than they are within that o£ the Pubíic Service Commîssion; and what the Record and Guide would like to see is some evidence that these two bodies are ready and able to reach an agreement, and that they will present a joint demand to the Legislature for any legislation which they may need. It may be that the importance of sueh an agreement is fuUy appreeĩated, and that informal steps have already been taken to that end, but if so, no traces thereof have been allowed to transpire. But as soon as any such Eteps are taken, news to that effect should be given to the press. Public opinion is profoundly interested in the ques- tion, and should be consulted early in respeet to any poliey whieh may be adopted. The sooner a deflnite policy is formulated and adopted, the better. IT IS STATBD THAT THB group o£ flnanciers who controlled the Metro- politan Street Railway for so many years are to retire, and that the management of the Interborough-Metropolitan Com- pany will remain in tbe hands of Mr. Belmont and his assoeiates. Everybody interested either in the securities of the eompany or in the futTire improvement of its service must hope that such wiU be the ease. Con- fldence in the good faith of.the management of the cor- poration will never be restored so long as the men whose poliey has wrecked this fine property remain identified with its control. Mr. Belmont may not be all that the respon- sible head of a great public aervice eorporation should be; but at any rate he stands for sound financial methods, and ĩiis branch of the system is the solvent braneh, from the earnings of which the whole property may in the end be rehabiiitated. The earnings of the Interborough Compauy over and above the interest on its bonds already amount to several per eent. on the preferred stock o£ the Inter- borough-Metropolitan Company, and after the Brooklyn tunneĩ has been in operatîon for six months it is possible that the Tnterborough Company alone could pay the whole diviãend to which the preferred stoek is entitled. Such being the condition, the Interborough interest obvioualy ought to eontroĩ the property. The only coneeivable alter- native would be the dissolution of the merger. The situ- ation of the Interborough Company is so much stronger than that of the City Railway that again we cannot help expressing our wonder tiiat the merger was ever consum- mated, If Mr, Belmont bad persiated in íightĩng, he could have had absolutely his own way. The Metropolitan Com- pany eould not have affiorded to build Subways and its whole programme of Subway construction was merely a big bluff—undertaken apparently £or the purpose of nn- loading on the Interborough Company.