Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: [v. 95, no. 2446: Articles]: January 30, 1915

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BUILDERS AND NEW YORK, JANUARY 30, 1915 ■lilllilliilililM^^^^^ "BUILD NOW" MOVEMENT FAIRLY LAUNCHED Inside Trend of the Times Demonstrated to Prominent Eastern Builders by Trip, This Week, to Siegfried, Pa. I Miilliilillllil^ ilMliiillliillM^^^^^^^^^^^ BIG men are not the ones who are talking pessimistically to-day. It is the small fry who are holding back, afraid, and, like many small things, they make the most noise. Men who think out vast commercial campaigns, captains of industry, masters of finance, men of analytical minds upon whose judgment of conditions depends the welfare of great industries, tlie stability of business and the country's general weal to-day are weaving a web that is destined in the course of a short time to reveal to the timid that they have been caught napping. Here and there bubble forth evidences of this undercurrent of big business. Projections like that $2,500,000 building for printers and publishers that is going to replace the old Hager warehouse on Eighth avenue, are wisps that show what leaders are doing. Men like Archibald D. Russell know what is going on. Big corporations like the New York Central Railroad and the Central Railroad of New Jersey do not announce their plans before maturity, and about all the public knows of the optimism men in high places have is when announcement is made that another million-dollar market terminal building is to be erected in a part of the city remote from the spot where the small fry believe things are most likely to develop. The faith that the Central Railroad of New Jersey has in the betterment of conditions is not heralded broadcast, and about all that mediocre business interests know of the impending influx of freight from a rap¬ idly recovering nation is that the Cen¬ tral Railroad of New Jersey is prepared to take care of the business that the or¬ dinary chap never imagined was on the way. Getting the Business. Men like Andrew T. Robinson, Paul Starrett, Charles T. W'ills, Louis J. Horo¬ witz, Thomas J. Steen, Walter Stabler, Frederick W. Snow, Ernest R. Acker¬ man, John B. Rose, T. Eckford Rhoades and John P. Kane do not herald that they see prosperity and better building con¬ ditions approaching. It is better busi¬ ness to let the other fellow find it out. When the big deals are consummated, one here, one there, and another over in East Jersey, the inconsequential investor or builder begins to realize, when too late, that he was not optimistic early enough to get the business. _ This week some 250 men of the type cited spent the day out of the city. They were the guests of Ernest R. Ackerman, banker, railroad director and a captain of industry. Six Pullman cars conveyed the party to Siegfried, Pa., where the Lawrence Portland Cement Works are located, and where the annual meeting of the board of directors of this company is held. Instead of finding a plant closed down_ for repairs, they found it working full time. This company makes its re¬ pairs in Summer, when wolf packs are not so ravenous. Besides, it would not be good business to shut down now. But this is what the big builders of New York and eastern New Jersey did WHY BUILD NOW? Because—Money is easier. Prices of Materials are low. Manufacturers have low re¬ serves. There is a demand for construc¬ tion. Labor is plentiful and eager to work. Big Men are Planning Con¬ struction work. There is a growing need for Modern Buildings. Plan filings show increasing activity in building. Present construction helps to solve the unemployed problem. Building Costs may be expected to increase as demand im¬ proves. New York Real Estate will not be as cheap again in many years. find: Storage bins which had been teem¬ ing earlier in the season, especially im¬ mediately after the opening of the war in Europe and the resultant stoppage of financial and building activity every¬ where, were noticeably depleted of fin¬ ished cement. In the clinker bins, how¬ ever, tremendous quantities of this half- made cement were held in storage. Cement in this state cannot depreciate. Every one of the giant kilns in the plant was working full time turning out more and more of this product. The answer was that Senator Acker¬ man, close in touch as he is with real estate, industrial and financial conditions of three States—New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania—was informed as to what was coming. He was making his plans accordingly. The pile of clinker in reserve is the answer. The other big men in the party saw it and smiled. They knew the Senator was right. Other men in the party have been doing the same. Only instead of stacking clinker they have been laying big plans quietly for the things that were on the way. They sounded the host of the day in the speeding Pullmans, on the way home. This is what he told them: Investors Turning to Real Estate. 'As the financial situation grows more favorable, investors turn to real estate and naturally the most sought for is real estate improved with fireproof structures. Anticipating a heavy demand for cement when spring arrives, we have been running for the last month at our full capacity in the clinker making de¬ partments in order to have a large supply of seasoned clinker on hand when the activity of summer building calls for quantity and quick delivery. "In New York City there is a distinct change in financial sentiment, and optim¬ ism is replacing pessimism in all in¬ dustrial lines. "In my opinion the prevailing low prices for building materials of all kinds such as tile, brick, lumber, etc., will soon have to give way to considerably higher quotations, since the time is near at hand when the investor, with cash to build, will undoubtedly make his pres¬ ence felt. "We have learned by recent experi¬ ence that all interests are inter-depend¬ ent and I, personally, feel very optim¬ istic regarding the uear future. There is a strong incentive among business men to pull together and with all of us pulling there can be but one result, and that result will be commercial success. "My experience in the cement in¬ dustry for over a third of a century and the fact that I am able to make first hand comparisons of the use of Port¬ land cement in over one hundred countries, convinces me that in the near future the people m the United States are going to awake to the great possi¬ bilities of 'Concrete for Permanence.' The result will be a strong demand for the higher grades of cement that have been on the market for more than ten years and an era of great activity will soon be under way." The big building construction and material men who went to Pennsylvania on Thursday might not have been able to quote statistics as reason for their optimism, but they could have pointed to new orders and instructions to go ahead with plans. But figures show that their belief in the future of the New York and New Jersey building situation is well founded. Material Reserves Low. If the finished cement bins at the plants are low, what of other lines? Manufacturers keep in touch with each other pretty closely. They know, through a hundred different channels, what their competitors are doing or are planning to do. Therefore it is not sur¬ prising that plaster and liine plants are not carrying large surplus supplies; that the brick sheds up the Hudson are about a third of a billion less full than they were last year; that the steel store¬ houses at Waverly, N. J., and elsewhere are not overstocked; that sand and gravel is being mined only on current demand; that slate, marble and other commodities are conservatively carried. These manufacturers are all advised most intimately of the current trend in New York construction, and they chuckle with glee when, even with prices down to bed rock, they know their com¬ petitors have nothing on them in the way of over-supply, as plan filings show a gain in volume and value over last year's figures, and real winter weather still holding aloof. January closes with a total of $11,155,- 395 in building operations now actually moving. Last January the net for New York was $9,428,792, and in the year be¬ fore that January showed a total plan filings of $7,662,173. Add to this Janu¬ ary's 10.7 per cent, of the^ $50,000,000 worth of construction held in abeyance at the first of the year that is now going ahead, and January, 1915, opens with an actual estimated gross value of live con¬ struction work of $16,546,695. The big fellows are building now.