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June II, 1910
RECORD AND GUTOE
1241
CTABUSHED^ WARTH ai>^ 1S68.
.tteATEDioRy»J.E^xre.BmLDir(G AR,c^nx(rrin^E.KoiiSEiiou)DE(^
Bi^sd/ess Alb Themes of GEjiEi^V 1Kter.est.,
PRICE PER YEAR IN ADV.ANCE BtGHT DOLLARS
Communications should be addressed to
C. W. SWEET
published EOerg Saturdag
By THE KECORD AVD 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 Easf 24tli Sfreet, New York City
(Telephone, Madison Square. 4430 to 4433.)
"Entered
at
the Post Off
ce at New
York
, N. y..
OS
sccoiid-elnss
matter."
Copyrigbted.
1910, by
The
Record
&
Guide
Co.
Vol. LX
x:
/â– \r
JUNE
11,
1010.
No,
2204
THE real estate market of 1909-1910 has undoubtedly
proved to be a disappointment in respect to tbe volume
of business it has developed; and this disappointment has
been particularly prevalent during the past month. Not
only has there not been so many transactions consummated
as there were last year, but, until recently, the demand for
gilt-edged property has been smaller. Throughout 1909, for
instance, perhaps the most salient phase of the current real
estate news was the continued acquisition of important cor¬
ners by large business interests, which wanted to secure iu
perpetuity the benefit for their business of some particularly
advantageous location. During the early months of 1910,
on the other hand, this tendency -was checked, and a number
of important transactions, for which negotiations were well
underway, were never consummated. The cause of this
check probably was that the retail trade was proving to be
a disappointment. Business men who had assumed heavy
flxed charges for particularly desirable locations were not
finding their new stores as profitable as they expected, and
conditions, consequ,ently, were not so favorable for the
financing and consummation ot large deals. During the last
week or two, however, for whatever reason, the market has
been improving io this, if in no other respect. While tbe
total volume of business has been sm,all it has included some
very large transactions. The largest of them was the ac¬
quisition of a plot on the west side of Broadway between
35th and 36th streets and extending almost to Seventh ave¬
nue by a syndicate headed by the Shuberts. The property
so acquired constitutes a peculiarly good location for a de¬
partment store, and in all probability it will eventually be
used for that purpose. Either Marshall Field & Company,
or the United Dry Goods Stores Company are likely to con¬
trol it. Plots of this kiud are difficult to acquire, and are
more needed by department stores than by any other line
of business. Two other smaller plots in the same district
have also been sold or leased recently as sites for hotels,
and this fact is peculiarly interesting. It points to a re¬
vival of hotel building in the neighborhood of Greeley square,
and if these new hotels are built and are successful there will
follow inevitably a revival of interest in the building of
restaurants and theatres in this vicinity. These proposed
new hotels constitute tbe first evidence of the investment
of large amounts of capital in this district exclusively as
the result of the changes produced by the Pennsylvania Ter¬
minal, The same cause will probably be responsible for
many similar transactions during the next few years.
-------------«-------------
IN the last number of the Record and Guide Mr. Wright
Barclay suggested two minor changes in the street sys¬
tem of Rtanhattan, which would tend to relieve the existing
congestion of traiiie. One is the extension of Madison ave¬
nue to Union square aud the other the extension of Lexing¬
ton avenue to Fourth avenue. Both of these alterations
in street lines have, of course, heen suggested before, and
both belong to the class of street improvements, which
would be relatively inexpensive and useful. The extension
of Madison avenue might be particularly helpful in relieving
the congestion at the south end of Madison square and in
diverting traffic from Fifth avenue. If it could be united
with the widening of the roadway of Madison avenue, it
would undoubtedly help to attract traffic to that less con¬
gested thoroughfare. Eventually the roadway of Madison
avenue will have to be widened from 23d to 59th streets;
but, this consummation wiil not be reached for a great many
years. When it comes to be seriously proposed it wili be
fought bitterly by the owners of private residences between
34th and 42d streets; and it certainly would be a hardship
in case these people were forced to abandon their stoops iu
order to make the avenue more available for busmess and
traffic,—a consummation which the property owners on
this part of Madison avenue wish at any cost to avoid. In
the long run, however, they will be obliged to yield. Sixth
avenue cannot be used for the relief of Fifth avenue, because
of the encumbrance of the elevated road. Madison avenue Is
the only thoroughfare parallel to Fifth avenue which is
available for through trafflc, and the city should deliberately
encourage its use. It should, as Mr. Barclay suggests, extend
Madison avenue to Union square and it should widen the
roadway wherever this could be done without any excessive
damage to private property. Such a widening is particularly
necessary from 42d street north, because along that stretch
it is too narrow properly to accommodate both cars and
vehicles.
THE Board of Estimate has done well to order the widen¬
ing of the roadway of 42d street from Park to Eighth
avenue, by diminishing the width of each of the two side¬
walks by seven and one half feet. In the case of these con¬
gested cross-town streets the widening Is even more neces¬
sary than it was in the case of Fifth avenue; but, at present
the space between the curb and the cartracks is very narrow
and particularly in snowy weather throws much of the
traffic iuto the center of the street. It is entirely just, more¬
over, that the expense of removing the stoops, wherever
they still exist, should be placed on the shoulders of the
property owuers. They have been occupying municipal prop¬
erty for years without paying any compensation, aud now
that an essential public interest requires the revocation of
the privilege they have enjoyed they have every reason to
accept the resulting expense without complaint. They have
benefited largely from the conditions that have made the
widening of the roadway necessary; and they will to a cer¬
tain extent benefit from the freer movement of traffic, which
will follow from the Improvement. The same considerations
apply to 34th and 2 3d streets, and as little delay as possible
should attend the application of the same remedy. In the
case of 2od street, it is proposed, however, to extend the
widening from Eighth avenue to the River. No sufficient rea¬
son can he alleged for this increase of the scope of the im¬
provemeut. The vehicular traffic that goes to and from the
West 23d street ferries is not very heavy and will be very
much diminished when the Pennsylvania station is opened.
This part of the traffic can usually take the Hue either of
24th street or 22d street quite as conveniently as it can the
line of 23d street, and as a matter of fact it frequently does
do so. The two blocks on 2 3d street between Eighth and
Tenth avenues are improved with old private dwellings
which have been converted to business uses iu only a few
cases, and it will be another ten years before business will
assume possession of these blocks. Under such conditions the
revocation of the stoop privileges between Eighth and Tenth
avenues would be a real hardship and an unnecessary one.
The property affected by it is not particularly valuable. It
has not Increased in value to any considerable extent of
late years. The expense necessitated by the removal of the
stoops, wherever they exist, would be a total loss to the
great majority of the property owuers; and it would be a
loss Ior which they would not be reimbursed for a long
time. The widening of 23d street should not go any farther*
than Lexington avenue on the east and Eighth avenue on
the west.
PROPERTY owners in Manhattan and the lower regions
of the Bronx can regard with a good deal of complacency
the recent Increases in the commutation rates charged by
tbe New York, New Jersey and Long Island suburban rail¬
roads. For years commuters have enjoyed an excessively
cheap service owing to the deliberate policy adopted by the
railroad companies of encouraging the building up of the
territory tributary to their lines; and by these means a great
many thousand families have been induced to migrate to the
suburb, many of whom would otherwise have occupied apart¬
ments in Manhattan or the lower Bronx. That the rail¬
roads should have adopted this policy was undoubtedly a
good thing, both for themselves, for the territory they served