Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: [v. 89, no. 2309]: June 15, 1912

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1276 RECORD AND GUIDE June 15, 1912 -N'ew Theatre founders once planned lo I'Uild. has been acquired under lease by iliird parties, who are erecting buildings in the style of tho Maxine Elliott The¬ atre. Together they will cost exceeding $300,000 for the bare building. They arc designated as "theatre and studio" buildings, and will be in part five stor¬ ies high. As the new Shubert Music Hall, now building, and the Little The¬ atre are directly opposite, there will be four new theatres in a group. To relieve the vehicle congestion that might other- M'ise result, a new street thirty-five feet wide has been planned, to extend through the block from 44th to 45th street. New theatres are also under construction lu '12d. 46ih, -17th and 4fith streets, all in the Times Square or theatre section. Other forms of construction which arc numerically pronounced are skyscraper ofl'ice buildings, municipal buildings and high-class commercial buildings. Owing to a remarkable variety of work, loft buildings of the factory type are not nu¬ merically as conspicuous in the list as in most previous years. On the West Side, south of SSth street, where the new manufacturing colony has centered, there is little building activity this year; but on the opposite of the town, in the new "commission district" there has been a marked resumption of activity, and of a type equaling the best that has yet been done there. The Hess Building and the Passavant Building, illustrated here, are examples of current work on Fourth avenue. Commerciai construction con¬ tinues active also in the lateral streets north of 34tli street, and there is an in¬ timation of coming activity along Sev¬ enth avenue. The municipality is building a record number of fire-houses, a monster offlce building to supplement City Hall, a new high school and various other buildings, besides subways. As soon as plans are ready work -tvill start on Brooklyn's new municipal building. The Grand Central Station work continues to employ a large body of mechanics. Ofiice building is having a conspicuous revival. It is an¬ nounced this week that work on the Adams Express Building, which Robert E. Dowling's new company is to build, will soon be started at the northwest corner of Broadway and Exchange place. The Woolworth Building, the Bankers' Trust, the Guaranty Trust and the Sea¬ men's Home are all objects of interest south of Chambers street. The white marble skyscraper of the U. S. Rubber Corapany, just about finished, punctuates the northern end of the skyscraper sec¬ tion of Broadway, and the new McAIpin Hotel, towers above everything around Greeley Square. The executive secretary of the central council of the unions in the building trades. Roswell D. Torapkins, reports a very satisfactory condition of employ¬ ment for skilled workmen. Some trades cannot supply a sufficient number of men for the jobs that are to be manned. The busiest craftsmen are the carpenters, electricians, ceraent masons, metallic lathers, plasterers, tilelayers, marble workers, and asphalt and asbestos work¬ ers. Not in a number of years have the trades been so well employed. New Surface Line in Fifty-Ninth Street. The Public Service Commission for tlie First District has approved the contract made April 1, 1912, bet-(^'een the Third Avenue Bridge Corapany and the Central Park, North and East River Railroad Company for the use of a track in 59th street. This action was taken upon an opinion by Commissioner I\lilo R. INIalt- tiie, who stated that the Third Avenue Bridge Company has a franchise to op¬ erate a railroad in 59th and 60th streets, between Third avenue and about 50 feet east of Second avenue, and on Third avenue, between 59th and 60th streets, and also across the Queensboro Bridge to the Plaza in Long Island City. The Central Park, North and East River Railroad has a double-track railroad in 59th street, including tlie portion lying between Third and First avenues. The Third Avenue Bridge Company desires to use a portion of these tracks on 59th street east of Third avenue in order to complete its route under its franchise. The contract provides for the use by the Third Avenue Bridge Company of about SOO feet of this track for the operation of its cars over a portion of its route, and also to make connections with said track. NEW POLICY FOR SAILORS' SNUG HARBOR Its Manhattan Property Must Be Made Responsive to Modern Business Needs, and the Income Is Not Suffi¬ cient for Proper Improvements. —Financial conditions are positively changing for the better. A more confl¬ dent undertone prevails, both in the Bast and the West. WHAT is considered a rather serious state of affairs in the finances of the Sailors' Snug Harbor has been disclosed to the public. It is probable that some change in the long financial policy of the trustees will be made. Uf late years the character of the neighborhood in which most of the investment properly of tlic institution is situated has changed. The lands have become desirable for business ralher than for residential purposes. A majority of the buildings have been altered from private dwellings to an in¬ ferior class of store and loft buildings. Buildings of this sort are not and cannot be used for a desirable class of buildings, except in a minority of cases. Tlie ten¬ ants cannot afford to erect large business buildings adequate to the demands of the present day. because such buildings are considered by them as too costly for erec¬ tion on leased lands, and besides such operations cannot be easily financed. As the result of these conditions many of the existing buildings on the Sailors' Snug Harbor tract have been allowed by the tenants to depreciate, and except on Broadway and University place business flrms of tlie better class have avoided the property. The retail husiness in its move- m.ent uptown jumped over the Snug Har¬ bor property, whicii bisects the business districts, because the property is not re¬ sponsive to modern business needs. Later the wholesale business, forced up¬ town by the growth of the city, also passed over this section, for a similar reason. Considerable as are the income re¬ sources of the institution, tliey do not suffice to meet the expenses of ex¬ tinguishing the outstanding ground leases and the proper improvement of any con¬ siderable portion of this large tract of land. The capital resources of the Har¬ bor are not available for that purpose without a sale of some of its land. At the present time the trustees are seeking authority to dispose of some of its lands. That the lands may be sold with the consent of the Legislature it is agreed; but for various reasons the Snug Harbor Board is reluctant to ask for this legis¬ lation. It is believed that an act passed by the Legislature in 1901 will be con¬ strued by the courts as empowering the trustees to make tlie change, and accord¬ ingly a suit has been instituted with a view to obtaining a decision to tliis ef¬ fect. A. Barton Hepburn, president of the board of trustees, does not favor any sud¬ den departure from a policy that has proved successful for more than a cen¬ tury, and he says that if authority to sell the real estate should be conferred upon the trustees, either as a result of the law suit or by legislation, he would advi.se that such authority be exercised cautiously and only after careful con¬ sideration. The board of trustees is not subject to any supervision, but it makes a report annually to the Legislature and the Euard of Aldermen. The last report does not set forth the condition of the real estate. The value of the real estate is estimated to be in excess of $20,000,000. The income for the year 1911 was $552,170 frora ground rents. $33,796 frora interest and $3,d73 from olher sources; total, $589,- i>40. The expenses of the institution for maintenance of inmates, buildings and grounds and the New Tork oflice was ?402,S57; expenses of buildings in Eor¬ ough of Manhatlan, including taxes, $39,- 754. Ponndation of the Charity. The president of tiie Chamber of Com¬ merce is, by virtue of his office, also a trustee of the Sailors' Snug Harbor, a duty imposed upon him under the will of Captain Richard Randall, who died in 1801. Mr. Hepburn is now filling this dual position. In a report which he has just made to the Chamber he gives some unfamiliar information concerning the Snug Harbor, including a statement of the pTesent crisis in its flnanciai affairs. By the terms of Captain Randall's will, he gave his entire residuary estate to the Chancellor of this State, ttie Mayor and Recorder of this city, the president of the Chamber of Commerce, the president and vice-president of the Marine Society, (he rector of Trinity Church, and the minister of the First/ Presbyterian Church, with the direclion, that from the rents, issues and profits thereof they sliould erect an asylum or marine hos¬ pital, to be called, "The Sailors' Snug Harbor," for the purpose of maintaining and supporting aged, decrepit and worn- out sailors. There is a tradition that the will was drawn by Alexander Ham¬ ilton. In 1S06 a charter -^t-as granted to the trustees by the Legislature of New- York, who were thus given perpetual succession and the right to act in a col¬ lective corporate name. The office of Cliancellor was abolished in 1847, and that of Recorder in 19o7, thus reducing the number of trustees from eight to six. Captain Randall's residuary estate con¬ sisted of his farm of about twenty-two acres in the (then) Seventh Ward, lying east of what is now Pifth avenue, and north of the present line of . Waverly place, whicii was then worth (as it is be¬ lieved) belween twelve and fifteen thou¬ sand dollars; four lots in the First Ward of the city, then worth (as it is believed) about twenty thousand dollars, and per¬ sonal properly to the extent of about ten thousand dollars. Such estate was insufflcient to justify the immediate establishment of the in¬ stitution contemplaled by Captain Ran¬ dall. Accordingly, having first divided the Seventh \\ ard into standard lots of 25x100, the trustees devised the policy of leasing such lots upon ground leases, for terms of fivcnty-one years. Leases are limited to twenty-one years, for the reason, as Mr. Hepburn explains, that there is in this State a statute enacted in 1846 which taxes tlie "reiils reserved" on leases for more than twenty-one years. That is to say, if a lease is made for more than twenty-one years, the rent for one year is capitalized and taxed as i>er- sonal property belonging to the lessor. The Sung Harbor Leases. The leases provided that, upon the ex¬ piration of each successive term, the trustees should have the option either to pay the value of the improvements made by the tenant, or to extend the lease for a, new term of twenty-one years at an annual rental of a stipulated percentage upon the value of the land without the improvements. Under all of such leases the tenant was required to pay all taxes and assessments, and it w^as provided that, if the tenant should have improved the land, he should have an absolute right to successive renewals of his lease, unless, at the expiration of any term, the trustees should elect to pay him for his improvements. In 1S33, notwithstanding the heavy ex¬ penses entailed by an unsuccessful at¬ tack raade upon the will by certain of Captain Randall's relatives, the trustees had accumulated enough money to erect a marine hospital or asylum upon lands purchased by them upon Staten Island, and thirty aged and indigent sailors were received therein during that year. And, so successful has the "ground lease" pol¬ icy thus inaugurated, since proved, that frora tlie accumulated income of the property, the trustees have been enabled to create the magnificent institution upon Staten Island so familiar to us all, to care for many thousands of sailors and to erect a few large buildings upon the former "farm," for investment purposes. —A new mortgage for $3,000,000, cover¬ ing the big skyscraper office building at No. 43 Broadway, extending through to New street, has been obtained by the owners, the New York Real Estate Se¬ curity Company, from the New Tork Life Insurance Corapany, The mortgage was obtained to liquidate a mortgage for a similar sum now on the property ond held by the Equitable Life Assur¬ ance Society.