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July 4, 1908
RECORD AND GUIDE
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D£v6-[^ p Ke^L LSTAfE. Bui LDIf/o %Cl(lTEeTvJI^E ,KoUSEHOLD DZGQRATlotf,
BUSII.'ESS mJd TheI.IES of Gei4eI\aI if/TEREST,
PRICE PER YEAR IN ADVANCE EIGHT DOLLARS
Communications should be addressed to
C. W. SWEET
Published EVerg Saturday
By THE RECORD AND GUIDE CO.
President, CLINTON W. SWEET Treasurer, F. .W. DODGE
Vice-Pres. & Genl, Mgr., H, W. DESMOND Secretary, F. T. MILLER
Nos. 11 to 15 East 24th Street, New Yort City
(Telephone, Madison Square, 4430 to 4433.)
."Ent&red at the Post Office at New Yorh, N. Y., as second-class matter."
Copyrighted, 190S, by The Record & Guide Co.
Vol. LXXXII.
JULY 4, 1008.
No. 2103
ONCE again an attempt is being made to unite the va¬
rious local and special associations of property own-
• ers in New York into an effective organization. The need of
such an organization has been constantly preached in the
columns of this paper, and the reasons in favor of it have
appealed to all the men most intelligently interested in real
estate; but every attempt to make such an organization com¬
pletely representative and thoroughly effective has hitherto
proved abortive. The crisis occasioned by the passage of
the Mortgage Tax bill did indeed bring into existence the
"Allied Real Estate Interests," which has served the inter¬
ests of the property owners of New Yorlt City better than
has any organization of real estate men since the death of
the old Real Estate Exchange. But hitherto the influence
of the "Allied Real Estate Interests" has been exercised
more at Albany than in the City Hall, and its membership is
not large enough to make it thoroughly representative. Any
movement on behalf of more comprehensive organization is
consequently to be most cordially approved. The reasons
which have always existed in favor of more effective organ¬
ization are rendered at the present time peculiarly strong by
the dangerous and dubious condition of the municipal
finances. The taxpayer in this city is confronted by an ex¬
traordinary and a dangerous condition. On the one hand
it is extremely probable that his tax bills are to be increased
by an average amount not far from eight or nine per cent.
On the other hand, it is also probable that very important
improvements will have to be postponed or abandoned be¬
cause of the inability of the city to borrow money for the
purpose. The city government, that is, will be obliged to tax
real estate property more heavily than ever, while at the
same time it will be unable to give to property owners the
improvements demanded by the growth of the city. The
situation certainly demands attention and action on the part
of the taxpayers, and it is to be hoped that such action will
be secured. At the present time the Board of Estimate is
divided into a group which favors economic expenditure and
a group which has a tendency to lavish extravagance. An
efficient organization of taxpayers could be of immense as¬
sistance to the first of these groups, which includes as its
chief members the Mayor and the Controller.
THE purchase of the Hotel Saranac by a member of the
Phipps family offers food for reflection. The price
reported to have been paid for the property is $1,000,000.
and in case the report is true, the value of the plot has in¬
creased by $400,000 in about six years. This seems to be a
large increase in value; yet no good judge of New York real
estate will infer-that the reported price is excessive. A value
of $110 a square foot for property facing on Broadway and
Seventh avenue and only a few feet from the intersection of
Broadway and 42d street must, in the light of corresponding
values in other parts of the city, be considered distinctly
moderate. A rich man cannot select a surer way of making
money than by the purchase of a parcel of real estate of such
strategic importance and by waiting patiently for the in¬
evitable increase in value. In the present instance the price
at which the property is reported to have been rented Is
sufficient to pay all carrying charges and a moderate bnt
sufficient interest on the investment. Any increase In value
will be undiluted profit, and there is no reason to suppose
that some day the property will not sell for at least double
the price which has recently been paid. The intersection of
Broadway, Seventh avenue and 42d street is at the present
time the centre of the amusement district, and there are
good reasons for believing that it will keep this distinction
for many years to come. The Record and Guide has fre¬
quently explained why in its opinion the northward march
of the retail trade, the theatres and the restaurants will be
checked, at any rate, for a generation or so. These branches
of business, instead of being distributed along a shifting
line will be centralized as a result of transit improvements;
and it is even possible that in case there is any shift during
the next twenty years, the direction of the change will be a
little to the south of Times Square instead of a little to the
north. In any event a plot such as that on which the Hotel
Saranac stands has a future as assured as that of the growth
of Manhattan as a place of amusement and business for aa
ever-increasing number of millions. Its neighborhood is be¬
coming more available than ever before, not merely as an
area adapted for restaurants and hotels, but as an area
adapted to business. The Hotel Normandie, somewhat to the
south, is to be turned into an office building, and a structure
devoted to similar purposes is to be erected by the Astor
Estate on the block front on the west side of the square
between 4Sd and 44th streets. It is probable that eventually
the land covered by the Hotel Saranac will be used for an
office building. The area is not large enough to constitute
the site of a really profitable hotel, and as a hotel it will, in
spite of its better location, always suffer frora the compe¬
tition of two such neighbors as the Hotel Knickerbocker and
the Hotel Astor.
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T^HE filing of plans for the new Equitable Braiding comes
•â– â– as something of a surprise. It has always been an
open secret that at about the time the scandals in relation to
the insurance companies became public the management of
the Equitable Life was considering the erection of a much
taller building on the site of its present structure, and it is
now apparent that the plan has never been abandoned."
There are indications, however that the new plans call for a
much taller and more conspicuous building than the one
pro.1ected by the foi'mer management. Even four years ago
a building thirty-four stories high throughout the area of a
whole block, over sixty stories high on a part thereof, and
reaching in its tower a maximum height of more than 900
feet—such a building even four years ago would have
seemed impossibly high. But after the Singer and Metro¬
politan Life towers indicated the advantages of such struc¬
tures and their possibilities, the notions of architects and
engineers have been considerably enlarged, and in the pres¬
ent instance the purpose of the management of the company
seems to have been that of building just as high as modern
engineering has made possible. For the present, at any rate,,
the safety and economy of a structure higher than the one
planned by the Equitable Life would require a prolonged
demonstration. On the other hand, the management of the
company would hardly have publicly announced its inten¬
tion of constructing such a gigantic building, unless it could
give, if necessary, excellent reasons on behalf both of its
safety and economy. The block upon which the Equitable
Building stands is the most valuable block under single own¬
ership in New York. The structure or structures now occu¬
pying the block yield a very small income upon the value
of the property; and it is stated that some years ago the
management of the company were convinced that the erec¬
tion of a modern building on the site would pay well, not
merely for its initial cost, but would also enable the com¬
pany to earn a higher rate of interest on its immensely valu¬
able site. The filing of the plans for the new building dur-,
ing the past week must be the result of this conviction; but^
of course, the management had the additional inducement
of the advertising value of such a high and huge structure.
If the new building is ever erected, it will constitute a tre¬
mendous advance over all competitors and it will be more
talked about than any modern building in the world. It will
provide probably the best opportunity for an impressive
architectural effect than has been offered to any architect
since the construction of St. Peter's, and if this opportunity
is well used it will become one of the world's most extraor¬
dinary and interesting spectacles.
TN ANNOUNCING their plans for the new building at the
â– â– â– present time the management of the Equitable Life have
probably been influenced by two main reasons. In the first
place its officers have probably feared the possibility of some
restrictive legislation. It still remains wholly uncertain
whether any effective restrictions upon the height of build-