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Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 77, no. 1983: March 17, 1906

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March 17, 1906 RECORD AND GUIDE 463 ESTABUSHED "^ M.J^CH £!'i^ 1868, DevSteD P RfA,L ESTAJI, BuiLOlf/G %cKlTECTUrtE ,HoUSEl!OU> DECOfifTlorl. BUsii^ESSAft)Themes0FGErJEn^l If'TER.Esi. PRICE PER YEAR IN ADVANCE EIGHT DOLLARS Published eVerp Saturday Communiratlona should ijo ft'ldreasec] to C. W. SWEET, 14-16 Vesey Street, New York 1 Telephone, Cortlandt 3157 "Entered at lhe Post Office at Ncio York, JV, I", as second-class mallrr," Vol. LXXVII. MARCH 17. 1900, No. 19S3 INDEX TO DEPARTMENTS. Advertising Section. Page. Pag*. Cement.....................xxii Law.........................xl Clay Products ................xxi Lumber ....................xxvii Consulting Engineers.........vii Machinery .....................It Contractors and Builders ......v Metal Work ................xviii Electrical Interests...........viii Quick Job Directory.........xxvi Flreprooflng ..................iii Real Estate ..................xiv Granite .....................xxiv Roofers & Roofing Materials.. .x Heating .....................xix Stone ......................xxiv Iron and Steel...............xvii Wood Products ............xxvii THE MONEY market, which has been for a long time a hitgaboo, has distinctly improved in tone during the week. March is always a tremulous period with money, even in easy years. In the great West the real estate and other settlements take place on March 1, while April 1 is settlement day throughout New England. In addition money is drawn out of hanks all over the country in connection with the plant¬ ing season. The farmers and planters' deposits in hanks are drawn down, and the actual money, the base of bank credit, finds its way for a time in the pockets of labor. This e.xtra¬ ordinary demand for money ends early, and is nearly always followed hy comparatively easy money rates until the autumn, hence the invariable and well acknowledged spring rise in stocks, which is really caused hy the easier means of financing in April and thereafter. THE Saxe bill signed by Mayor McClellan, ordering the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad to remove its tracks frora Eleventh avenue, naturally calls attention to the immense value in the aggregate of railroad reai estate on the West Side of the city near the North River. This property is rapidly increasing in value, and it is now estimated at not less than twenty-flve million dollars. The extreme westerly avenues^ and the foot of the streets on the North River frontage from 22d to 46th street are largely occupied hy railroad yards. In¬ deed, this strip of territory is fast becoming the railroad center of Manhattan Island. Besides the enormous acquisitions of the Pennsylvania Company for its new terminal between Slst and 32d streets, and Seventh and Ninth avenues, other railroad companies possess large areas. The New York Central, the New York and New Jersey Company, Erie and the West Shore, are the roads chiefly represented. The City assesses the value of the holdings of the New York Central, including its station and yards at Twenty-ninth and Thirtieth streets and Ninth and Tenth avenues, at nearly three million dollars. This assess¬ ment comprises property on Thirtieth, Thirty-first, Thirty- second and Thirty-third streets, and on Eleventh and Twelfth avenues. The West Shore, controlled by the New York Cen¬ tral, with property on Twelfth avenue and Thirty-flfth, Thirty- sixth, Thirty-eighth and Forty-sixth streets, is assessed by the City at nearly three-quarters of a millioil dollars. The New York and New Jersey Company has to pay taxes on the city's million dollar valuation of the company's Twelfth avenue prop¬ erty, on Thirty-third, Thirty-fourth and Thirty-fifth streets. The general terminal warehouse for railroads on Thirteenth avenue and extending from Twenty-seventh to Twenty-eighth street, is also assessed at a large amount. WALL STREET this week has heen marking time without initiative or a leader of the market on either side of the account. Fundamental conditions all favor the bulls. Rail¬ road earnings continue to he phenomenal. Those of New York Central for January and February have increased about 20 per cent, over last year. It is doubtful whether so large a per¬ centage of increase has ever been known on that great system, while inci'eases of a million dollars each or more per month continue to be common with systems like Atchison, Northern Pacific, North Western, and Great Northern, To realize what such increases mean, let it be recalled that it is only eight or nine years ago that these roads averaged gross earnings about thirty million dollars each, or two and a half millions per month, so that the increases of the present year often run as high as fifty per cent, of the former gross earnings. Nor are these increases to be wondered at in the light of interior bank clearings at representative cities, showing an increase of thirty- five or forty per cent, over last year. The question therefore is, how long Wall Street can remain depressed and prices sag in the face of the veritable boom west of the Hudson River, no weak spot being discovered anywhere. Wall Street itself, the optimists maintain, has not only a monopoly of pessimism, but an over supply. The market appears, whenever encouraged in the slightest degree, to display unmistakable powers of rebound. It may he fairly said that it goes up as easily as it goes dowfc, and while the bears charge that buyers are scarce on the de¬ cline, the hulls retort that stocks are scarce on every advance. The swing of the market at the moment is very narrow, and it seems to be sold out and reach an impasse on a decline, on an average, of say two points. When it reaches that condition, it rallies easily, but soon stops. Wall Street may be said to be asking itself in which direction will it break loose, and from what quarter will the wind come to take the market out of the doldrums into the "roaring forties." The daily speeches in Congress on the rate bill, which we will have from now to (, May 1st, will not be without their market influence. It is now ID conceded that the conservative element in both political parties in the Senate will dominate in the final legislation, and it is doubtful whether any new disquieting bills likely to affect values of railroad stocks will be introduced this session. THERE are those who consider that real estate in the sec-' tion from Thirty-fourtii street to Porty-second street, be¬ tween Broadway and Fifth avenue, and especially between Fifth and Sixth avenues, has about reached high-water mark. Large purchases of property in these streets were made some time since by well-known and shrewd operators, who are said to have disposed of the greater part of their holdings at handsome profits. It is now asserted that certain properties bought as an investment wil! not at present and perhaps not for some time to come bring anything like the return antici¬ pated; in short, that the income derived is inadequate for the price paid. It is contended that there must be a considerable increase in the return to justify present prices, and the flgures that sanguine holders confidently expect in the near future. Basement and parlor stores in what were formerly private houses close to Fifth avenue command a fair rental, but those farther down the blocks, especially close to Sixth avenue, are not nearly so much in demand, as is exhibited by the num¬ ber to rent in Thirty-eighth and Thirty-ninth streets. For example, the basement store of one house in those blocks is rented for .$1,200 a year, while $85,000 is demanded for the building itself. It is not probable, therefore, that stores or floors in houses so situated can for a long time yield a rental commensurate with the prevailing purchase figures lor the house itself. The reai value of such lots or plots is their suit¬ ability as sites for elevator olRce buildings, which will neces¬ sarily have properly constructed stores on the ground floors and contain a large number of ofRces. What at present affects rent¬ ing of ofBces in these houses turned into stores is that the upper floors are not much in demand on account of the better accommodation afforded in the new buildings especially con¬ structed for business purposes. The erecting of the Engineers' Club in West Thirty-ninth street will undoubtedly have its effect on property in that vicinity, but whether buyers have lieen paying too much for realty there, and so many have to wait to realize a profit, is of course a moot point. The future of the section, however, cannot be regarded even for a moment as doubtful. There is nothing much better in the city. WE are pleased to learn that our statement made in these columns last week to the effect that "No action, nor any action looking to action in the future, has been taken by the Architectural Profession, Builders, and others in regard to' the proposed revision of the Building Laws," Is in a measure incorrect. Shortly after the resolution to revise the Code passed the Board of Aldermen, Mr. Charles H. Israels called the attention of the New York Chapter A. I. A. to the matter through its President, and Mr. George B. Post acted promptly. He called a meeting of the presidents of the four architectural societies in this city and organized a provisional committee, which committee has already had several interviews with the Chairman of the Committee on Buildings of the Board of Alder-r