Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 78, no. 2005: August 18, 1906

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August i8, 1906. RECORD AND GUIDE 293 ESTABUSHED ^ MARpHSl-^ 136 S- Dn^TEO JO Rea,L Estajt.SuildijJg Ar.ch'itzcture.HouseiIoibDEGOfiAnorf. Bbsii^Ess Ai^Themes Of Gt;JEr(ftl I^^ter^est. PRICE PER YEAR IN ADVANCE EIGHT DOLLARS Published eVern Saturday Communications should bo addressed to C. W. SWEET Downtown Office: 14-16 Vesey Street, New York Telephone, Cortlaudt 3157 Uptown Office: 11-13 East 24th Street Telophone, Madison Square 1698 -Entered at the Fast Office at Neic Tor!,:, N. Y„ as second-class matter.' Vol. LXXVin. AUGUST 18, 1906, No. 2005 INDEX TO DEPARTMENTS. Advertising Section. Page. Page, Cement.......................xxx Law.......................xi Consulting Engineers ..........x Lumber ....................xxx Clay Products ..............xxiv Machinery ....................iv Contractors and Builders.......v Metal Work ................xvll Electrical Interests ...........xx Quick Job Directory ........xxix Fireproofing ..................ii Real Eslate .................xiii Granite ....................xxvi Roofers & Roofing Mater'ls.xxviii Heating ....................xxii Stoue......................xxvi Iron and Steel..............xviii Wood Products ..............xxx TT 7ALL STREET brokerage houses and financial writers * * persist in construing the advancing market action each day as a desperate eftort of big interests to unload. The fact is, tliat when big interests want to accumulate stocks they can only do so by creating this very suspicion, malting each seller pat himself on the back and say, "The big interests are not fooling me; they cannot unload on me, I will unload on them," and so the street has been unloading ou tliese great controlling interests as they supposed for the past month, and it would appear it was just what these interests in question wanted. The manufacture of new stocks having ceased for flve years, whereas the manufacture of new money has proceeded at a greater pace than ever known, is it not conceivable that the floating supply of stocks is smaller than five or six years ago, so that when large operators wish to acquire a line of securities their task will be impossible of accomplishment if the public were con¬ temporaneous buyers? Such operators must necessarily create the prevailing sentiment and caution to "beware of distribu¬ tion" in order to have the buying to themselves. All signs point to a sold-out condition of the average Wall Street com¬ mission house, and this belief will find expression later in low- priced railroad and industrial issues which have not yet par¬ ticipated in the advance. The sold-out public will resort to these issues so as to get back into the game. This they will prefer to purchasing again the stocks they have lost by their smart unloading, so it would seem that stocks like Inter¬ borough, Erie, Wabash, Iowa Central and Wisconsin Central at current quotations offer the preponderance, of ehrfnces in favor of an extended advance, and this might also be said of United States Steel Common. The threshing returns of wheat are greatly exceeding the early estimates of the crop, and should the Canadian crop realize its promise we may see an approach to a thousand million bushels as a product of the North American continent. A month ago there was some disquietude about money. It has now ceased to be a cause for alarm. Never has the money market been so closely watched nor more sensitive; yet it is not now believed that an acute situation will develop— "A watched pot never boils." Whether true or not. Wall Street has also come to the belief that there is a distinct slackening in real estate speculation, for which great relief is expressed, as the Street had worked itself up into a state of "nerves" over the impression that the speculation had become strained and could not stand up against a long period of tight money, for Wall Street finds it pleasant to believe that its panics have always been caused not by its own excesses but by some reckless per¬ formance of outside interests. THE extraordinary thing about the existing activity of real estate in Manhattan is that it holds its own so well under such disadvantageous conditions. The marltet has against it now two factors of the utmost importance. For one thing, renting conditions are not at all as good as they were in certain new districts, which means that tenements in these dis¬ tricts are harder to sell, and that comparatively few new opera¬ tions will be undertaken. But of even greater Importance Is the c9n(jitlo!i ot the money market, which iqakes it difficult to obtain building loans, and which is holding up many building enterprises. The plans filed for new buildings to be erected in Manhattan and the Bronx during July, 1906, called for the spending of only about half as much money as the plans filed during July, 1905. It is extraordinary, consequently, that the conveyances continue to be as numerous as they are. Their number does not vary materially from the number recorded during the-corresponding period last year, and inasmuch as the number recorded in 1905 broke all previous records by a large percentage, it can hardly be said that the contraction in the real estate business has as yet become very serious. It is much more serious in the Bronx than it is in Manhattan, and as for Brooklyn, the current activity is even greater than it was a year ago. It is an interesting fact that during the first week in August twice as many conveyances of Brooklyn property were recorded than of Manhattan and Bronx property combined. It is also to be remarked that, owing to the sudden diminution of building in Manhattan and the Bronx, the total figures are be¬ ginning to run behind those of last year. The plans for new Manhattan buildings recorded during the flrst seven months of 1906 still call for an expenditure of $5,000,000 more than the plans filed during the same period in 1905, but the Bronx shows a diminution of about $G,000,000 for the same period, so that the balance is now in favor of 1905. This balance will probably be increased before the end of the year, for there will during the rest of the year undoubtedly be a lull in tenement-house building. In the meantime the fall renting season has been begun, and upon its results will depend the activity of the com¬ ing winter. Since 1901 there has been no year iu which it was so difficult to predict just where speculative activity would be concentrated. Much, however, will depend upon the fate of the proposed rapid transit extensions. ■pv E WITT CLINTON PARK, with an area of seven and a half ■*-' acres at Fifty-second to Fifty-fourth streets, fronting on North River, has since its completion in November last greatly benefited the neighborhood, which was much in need of such improvements. Much of the old Strykers Lane property was in¬ cluded within this teiTitory, and its exceedingly slow develop¬ ment was long a bar to the growth of property values in this vicinity and ot tbe West Side generally. The neighborhood about here for many years was of a rough character, peopled by some of the most undesirable citizens within the limits of Manhattan. It was recognized as a slum district, and indeed so objectionable was the reputation it had acquired that ap¬ parently the growth of the city at this point and hereabouts had stopped at Fifty-ninth street. The opening of De Witt Clinton Park has changed all this. Play grounds for the chil¬ dren, a gymnasium, and a model market garden kept ou scien- tiflc principles now flourish. The garden is unique in respect to the attention given to the growth of ordinary vegetables. This section of the city is daily showing signs of progress in a marked degree, and there is a distinct improvement in the character and intelligence of those who make this district their home. The Park is a distinct gain in every way for tliose who live near it, and cleanliness, self-respect and a moral sense which in former years were absent to a great extent now gener¬ ally prevail. The Park is a boon to the familes of laborers and mechanics who haA'e taken up their residence here, and the uplifting effect of a pleasure ground in bettering conditions and improving the tone of the people is again demonstrated. UNRIVALLED in excellence as are the hotels of New York City, the extent of the accommodations they offer, the conveniences which they have installed, and their progressive management, combine to make it the more surprising that New York should be the only large city in the country which has, in fact, few "middle grade" family hotels. Between the first-class hotels and those of the cheapest sort there is little middle ground in New York. There are no hotels here which cater or profess to cater to middle class patrons at moderate rates. All other American cities have three varieties of liotels, those of the highest class and largest accommodations, those of the middle class at moderate rates, and the cheap and transient hotels to be found usually near railway stations or boat land¬ ings. New York has cheap hotels, but it has few family hotels; that is to say, hotels which cater to "family patronage" particu¬ larly. The reason for this is that the standard of rents charged in New York in eligible locations is so much higher than else¬ where in the country that to run a New York hotel according to the standard of family hotels in other cities would result in a loss. Moreover, the measure of prosperity of hotels in this city Is based on the extent of the accommodations they offer. The most up-to-date hotel is by an invariable rule the most