crown CU Home > Libraries Home
[x] Close window

Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Use your browser's Print function to print these pages.

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 75, no. 1936: April 22, 1905

Real Estate Record page image for page ldpd_7031148_035_00000942

Text version:

Please note: this text may be incomplete. For more information about this OCR, view About OCR text.
Aprii 22, igos RECORD AND GUIDE 86s ^^ ESTABUSHED ^ (WPHEli^^ 1868, Dev&ieC to RfA.L Estate . euiLoiflc A^crfrrEcruRE >{o9sn!ou> DEawfnml, Buswfess Alio Themes Of GeKer^I iKTERPM- PRICE PER YEAR IN ADVANCE SIX DOLLARS Publisfied eVerp Saturdas Communications should be addressed to C. W. SWEET, 14-16 Vesey Street. New YorK Telephone, Cortlandt 8157 "Entered at the Tost Office at New York. JV". T.. as second-class matler." ^ Copyright by the Real Estaie Record and Builders' Guide Company. Vol, LXXV. APRIL 22, 1905. THE Stock Market has again proved to be top heavy. The fahric of high prices were built upon too narrow a specu¬ lative margin; and a decline in a few points forced extensive liquidation. The reason for this lequidation appears to be chiefly temporary and technical and so far as thia is the ease It will soon spend its force. The only aspect of the existing situa¬ tion which looks dangerous is the indication of serious dis¬ agreements among the various groups of financial magnates. Just how serious and imminent these disagreements are, no one without inside information can say; hut they may lead to a pro¬ longed and exhausting fight. Although every means wjll be taken to avert such a contingency; the antagonistic feelings are so bitter and the antagonistic interests run so deep that, the fighting may come in any event, "With such a contingency hanging over the market, it is just as well for the smaller fry to get out and stay out until the situation clears, and the liquida¬ tion of the past week was doubtless due partly to some such cause. THE real estate market has been apparently much less ac¬ tive than it was a few weelts back; hut the decrease in activity is traceable entirely to the diminution of specu¬ lation in vacant land. We see no reason to modify the opin¬ ion expressed last week in relation to this sudden quenching of the speculative fires. In so far as that speculation is justified by current conditions, and sustained by sufScient margins, it will not be permanently injured by mortgage taxation, and in so far as the speculation in vacant land has failed to possess the characteristics indicated above, it is unwholesome and could lead only to disaster. It looks now as if, perhaps, there would not be any mortgage taxation; and in that case dealings in Bronx and Dyckman property will become as active as they were formerly. In other respects the transactions preserve that volume and character, to which we have become accustomed. Flats, tenements, dwellings, and business property are all in excellent demand. It is extremely interesting to note the ex¬ tent to which real estate on the margin of the active districts is being picked up by fore-handed purchasers. The auction mar¬ ket is doing well, and if it continues to do as well during the next few weeks, we may expect a very large auction business during the last of May and June. Building prospects are more flattering than ever. Now that the probabilities do not favor any serious labor troubles during the course of the present year, capitalists will venture to proceed with many schemes which have been hung up for some time. The number of new projects announced is very large. The most important of these is a 20- story building for lower West st—an improvement which will be followed by the gradual transformation o!! the water front on the lower West Side. The advantages offered by these sites in the way of light and air are unique and will result in a stream of similar projects, THE probabilities are that Broadway, between 26th and 32d sts, will follow! in the footsteps of Broadway just south of 23d St. Nothing is more evident than that the retail store-keepers, who still remain on Broadway south of 23d st, will have to move to locations further north along the line of Sth av. They are being crowded out by the wholesale trade, not because the wholesalers pay bigger prices, but because a region which they dominate becomes much less available for retail stores. The northward extension of the wholesale trade will not, however, stop at 23d st. Lofts are already being built be¬ tween Broadway and 6th av north of 23d st; and in a few years buildings of this kind will be erected in much larger numbers. Under such circumstances it is inevitable that Broad¬ way also Willi be devoted chiefly to loft buildings. The value of property is so high tbat it must eventually be improved with fireproof structures, and the demand for olfices will not be suf¬ ficient to line the thoroughfare with office buildings. The inteotion of Mr. Henry Corn to erect on the Metropolitan Hotel property a building devoted to the wholesale trade, fore¬ shadows the line of development for this part of Broadway, Its availability for hotel, theatre and restaurant purposes will steadily diminish. The old hotels in this neighborhood must go eventually, just as they had to go on that part of Broadway formerly celebrated by Niblo's Garden and the New York Hotel, The theatres will be distributed north of 34th st, and the restaurants also. Of course it will take many years to ef¬ fect these changes,which will depend upon the gradual encroach¬ ments of wholesale business, but they are necessitated by exist¬ ing tendencies. We expect, however, that the loft buildings will have a tendency to spread further west as well as further north. It would not be surprising to see them erected as far west as Sth av, between 14th and 34th sts. GOVERNOR HIGGINS is hesitating about the mortgage tax bill, and considering his personal relation to the measure, the hesitation affords a strong presumption that he will veto it. The bill, which passed the Legislature, was distinctly the Governor's idea; and in case he hesitates, after the Legislature has been so accommodating, it must mean that the pressure brought to bear upon him not to approve it has been extraordinarily powerful. The influential Republicans in this city are all of them opposing it strenuously and the Governor is being made to understand how disastrous its effects would be upon the popularity of the Republican party in this vicinity. It is possible that in spite of all this opposition, he will sign it in some amended form, because in case he does not sign it, or flnd a substitute for it, the State will have to face a deficit in revenue, which could only be made up by falling back upon the general tax. Both horns of the dilemma are sharp from the Governor's point of view, and it is incomprehensible that he does not escape by insisting on a mortgage recording tax. Tbis tax could be levied if necessary, so tbat it did not affect local revenues from the property tax. It could contain optional features, which would remove objections to it without dimin¬ ishing substantially either the revenues or the advantages to be derived from it, Tbe reasons in its favor are so numerous and evident that this solution of the problem of mortgage taxation will in our opinion ultimately prevail. If the annual mortgage tax can be defeated tbis year, it will probably not become dangerous agani in the near future. Much, of course, will de¬ pend upon the report of tbe Tax Investigating Commission, which is going to be authorized. It is very much to be hoped, in the interests both of the Republican party and the taxpayers, that this commission can suggest a scheme which will supply the necessary increase in revenue without burdening one im¬ portant business after another. No party, however strong, can endure the unpopularity resulting from tbese continual tax raids upon particular branches of industry. IT will not be easy for the Rapid Transit Commission to de¬ cide upon the relative merits of the plans for underground transit on 34th St., presented by the two competing interests. A four-track Subway connected with the Metropolitan system and a moving platform transferring to the Interborough sys¬ tem, both have certain advantages; and no matter which pro¬ posal the Commission adopts, 34th St. will be w«Il served. It is certain, however, that no decision should be taken im¬ mediately. It would be a grave mistake to authorize the con¬ struction of a moving platform on 34th St. independent of the longitudinal routes upon which bids will be taken next year. The advantages of the alternative plans from the point of view of the public are so well balanced that the decision to adopt either one or the other should depend upon the terms offered by the competing bidders and the method whereby the 34th St, Subway can best be fitted into a general Subway system. In the meantime the incident has been extremely interesting because of the light which it has shed upon the grouping of the various interests connected with New York rapid transit. It has brought out the fact that the Pennsylvania, the New Haven and the Met¬ ropolitan Companies are acting together, and that this alliance of interest will mean a close agreement of some hind for an interchange of traffic. Just how far this agreement will go, and what its consequences will be is not yet apparent; but it may go very far and bring about portentous results. It is in¬ deed being rumored that the New Haven Company proposes to terminate its agreement with the New York Central, and estab¬ lish an independent terminal in the vicinity of 32d St, and