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Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 26, no. 643: July 10, 1880

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Real Estate Record AND BUILDERS' GUIDE. YoL. XXYI. NEW YOEK, SATUEDAT, JULY 10, 1880. No. 643 Published Weekly by %\t %ml ^sMt %UQxti Association, TERMS. ONE YEAR, in advance....SIO.OO. Communications should be addressed to C. W. SW^EET. No. 137 Broadway THE LATEST VALUATION OP NEW YORK REAL ESTATE. The assessment rolls presented to the Board of Supervisors, on Monday last, increase the valua¬ tion of real estate iu the city and c(Juuty of New York by $24,437,310. As there will be little, if any, change from the figures submitted by the Commis¬ sioners of Taxes, we risk nothing in accepting their figures as the official exhibit of the value of realty in the twenty-four wards of the city of New York. It is evident, as shown by the table printed elsewhere, and as explained in these columns only a few weeks ago, in reply to a communication from a down-town property-owner, that valuations in the Seventh and Thirteenth wards have decreased* These localities are, for the time being in a transi¬ tory state; property there is dormant, and the time has not yet arrived for enquiry in regard to the various sites they offer for manufacturing pur¬ poses. When that demand sets in, as surely it will, the region covered by Market, Rutgers, Attor¬ ney, Ridge, Pitt, Willett, Lewis and Goerck streets will no longer show a decrease of value. In so far the commissioners taking an actual survey of the condition of our city have acted in accordance with a judgment with which no expert can find fault. But how is it with the other down-town wards? The increase in valuation in the First ward is only $906,000, and in the Third ward $395,250, And yet, at no previous time during the past ten years has the business property held for investment, and paying magnificent returns, had such a start as it received during the past twelve months. Improvements that would have been ridiculed, five years ago, have been started below the Post Office, a.l the way down to the Battery, around and along Broadway and Wall street, fixing a permanency for that centre far in excess of any anticipations entertained by the tax commissioners a few years ago. The Boreel building alone, at 115 Broadway, without naming the magnificent bank building now going up on the corner of Wall street and Broadway, the beautiful office building now being constructed on the corner of Exchange place and Hanover street by the Post estate, the improvementa in Wall street proper by insurance companies and other firms, the extension of the Stock Exchange, denoting its permanency as to a future abode, asiie of the completion of the Coal and Iron Exchange and the Smith building in Courtlandt street, and many other important changes in the lower, part of Broadway and cross streets ; all these have, within the last eighteen months, given a permanency to that section of the^city, of which investors have well known how to take advantage. It does not show, on the part ot the tax commiasioners—who pride themselves upon heing thoroughly posted as to market values —a sharp or shrewd insight into the spots whence are derived the actual increased returns by invest¬ ors. They have, for instance, increased the valua¬ tion of Nineteenth ward property to the extent of ten millions of dollars, because the Vanderbilts have chosen to select their habitations in the Fif ih avenue, and hence, as a tax commissioner stated the other day to a reporter, the increase there is simply owing to the influx of the Vanderbilt family. Real estate has not risen in value, even along Fifth avenue, owing to the movements of the Vanderbilts, at the ratio in which it is " bulled" by the tax commissioners, but Nineteenth ward property has been heretofore assessed altogether too low considering the enormous amount of im¬ provement. The conclusions arrived at by the Commissioners may be right, but the reason for arriving at these conclusions is simply ridiculous. The fault is, they have assessed it in accordance with their own notions of values, but not in accord¬ ance with strict market values. The owners of numerous new buildings erected in the Nineteenth ward, will find that it is rather an expensive piece of business to be located in a section that is to be controlled by the Vanderbilt status. As to Twelfth ward property, located most north of Central Park, the increase seems to be justified by the facts, as whole tracts of vacant lots have been improved there duiing the past twelve months. But the increase of nearly one million in the Twenty-first ward, where there has been little but speculative dealing, and but little improvement, ought not to have been countenanced by the com¬ missioners. A careful study of the columns of The Real Estate Recohd would have kept the commissioners abreast of the real estate market, and, while we do not take exception in the least to the total increase of valuation on Manhattan Island, we simply desire to express our astonish¬ ment that the commissioners', with the data ready at han 1, and basing their assessments upon actual "market prices," made their valuations in the various wards at figures which will make the most docile taxpayer despair that the definition of the word *' equalization" will ever be understood by officials in its true sense. The way this table is made up, is "equalization" in accordance with common street talk, and in pursuance of sensation articles on real estate published in the daily papers. Whenever it shall be understood in the tax office that no sensation article can ever affect values of realty, and that no "boom " will ever control the whole of Manhattan Island, but only in certain localities, then, and then only, will we have assess¬ ment rolls showing, indeed, true equalization of taxes in the twenty-four wards of Netr York city. The determination of owners of ocean steam¬ ship lines to locate their business above Twenty- third street, along the North River, will give a fresh impetus to a sorely neglected portion of the city. The Dock Commissioners, anxious to accommodate the various steamship lines, are already preparing plans for the construction of seven piers, which will command a yearly rental of $20,000 each. If these piers were ready now, they could be rented without difficulty, as all the owners of ocean lines now see plainly that they can handle passen¬ gers and freight to a greater advantage on this side of the Hudson than they coqW on the Jersey or Brooklyn shore. When these piers are all com¬ pleted, of course that section of West street will present a contrast to the present state of alfairs, such as will be thoroughly relished by all property- owners. HAVE STOCKHOLDERS ANY RIGHTS WHICH JOURNALS OUGHT TO RESPECT. That demagogism is not confined to politicians is evident by the manner in which the leading daily journals again urge upon the elevated roads the adoption of the five cent fare rule. This question vf&s discussed in all its bearings, fully and elaborately, during the recent session of the Legislature. The Rea'l. Estate Record then maintained that the adoption of this rule, in the absence of any accurate data in regard to the cost of maintenance and the various improve¬ ments yet to be made all along the East, as well as the West Side lines, would be ruinous to the stockholders. We desist to-day from repeating the various arguments then set forth in these columns, which were endorsed by legislative action, but we wish to ask those editors who clamor for five cent fares, whether they think that the capitalists have any rights at all in the premises. They may prate all they please about the magnificent franchises conferred upon these corporations, but how and in what manner do these franchises compare to the great and profit¬ able boon conferred upon New York City by these elevated corporations. Why did those public spirited men, who for years talked about "rapid transit," not put their hands in their pockets and construct a road—that has given life and activity to the property interest of New York, that has brought back thousands of citizens to our island, heretofore residents of Brooklyn and New Jersey, that has thrown a veritable calcium light upon the hitherto unexplored West Side, and has kept the temper of merchants and business men in a mood free from vexation, such as was provoked by the hanging on to straps in the horse cars, and led to subsequent irritations in business transactions not easily to be computed. Why, why, we ask, was all this not done by others ? The grand franchise of which we he&r so much was open to them, as well as to the pres¬ ent stockholders of the elevated road. Why did they not put their hands in their pockets and build, for instance, the magnificent Metropolitan Road? The stockholders who now resist the clamors, not of the people but of those would-be leaders of public opinion, occupying temporarily editorial chairs, did put their hands in their pockets. They have paid in their cash and have done New York City great service, have helped its business, improved its waste property and in¬ fused life where heretofore there was lethargy. They are men of business, however, satisfied, it is true, with their investment; but they also de¬ mand an opportunity to see how this is all going to work. The great public is satisfied to pay ten cents from the Battery to the Harlem River. The theoretical editors of the daily press, how¬ ever, simply to keep up a mere sensation, are anxious to fan a flame, for which, just now, there exists no fuel.