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Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 78, no. 2016: November 3, 1906

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November 3, 1906 RECORD AND GUTOE 717 Dzvi-tED JO Hej^L Estate.BuiLDifJb 5\RG^<^■EeTuRE,^{ollSEUou)DE60E5^T^o^f. Bt/sii^ESS Afi> Themes of CejJeraL IMteresi. PRICE PER YEAR IN ADVANCE EIGHT DOLLARS Published eVery Saturday Communications should bo addressed to C. W. SWEET Downtown Oflice: 14-lG Vesey Street, New York Teleplione, Cortlandt 3157 Upto vn Oilice: 1 1-13 East 24lli Street Tolophono, Mndlson Sijuaro 1090 "Entered at ihe Tost Offlce ai New York. N. Y„ as second-class mailer." Voi. LXXVIIl. NOVEMBER 3, IQOU. No. 2010. INDEX TO DEPARTMENTS. Advertising Section. Page Page Cement....................xxiii Law........................xi Consulting Engineers ........x Lumber .................xxviii Clay Products ..............xxii Machinery ..................iv Contractors and Builders ......v Meta! Work...............xvii Electrical Interests ..........viii Quick Job Directory ........xxvii Fireproofing ..................ii Real Estate ...............xiii Granite ..................xxiv Roofers & Rooflng Mater'Is. .xxvi Heatiug....................xx Stone ......................xxiv Iron and Steel ..............xviii Wood Products ............xxviii THIS week's extreme dullness in ttie Stock Market afford¬ ed too good an opportunity to get tip an election scare to be neglected by the bears. In their efforts the bears were aided by the demand for bigher wages by nearly all classes of railway employees. The officers of the New York Central lines denied, however, that their employees were asking for higher pay and shorter hours, though New York Central sold on Wednesday at 126 ?4. making a new low record for the year. Other roads said to be involved are the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western, the Central Railroad of New Jersey, Reading, Pennsylvania and Erie. The failure to increase the dividend on Steel Common was also a contributing cause of weakness in the Stock Market, yet many think that the Steel Corporation directors deserve credit for having moved cautiously in the matter of tbe Common stock dividends. This, with the great earnings as per the quarterly statement issued this week, could easily have been done, but, on the other hand, it is considered better to wait until the money situation is more settled. It is undoubtedly true that the New York election is being watched both here and abroad, and the effect on financial sentiment is not to be wondered at. There is, of course, always the fear of tight money in November and December, and it will be strange indeed if real estate and building tiperations will not be made to realize the money situation before the end of the year. Our securities are heavy abroad, based on apprehensions that the Bank of England may again raise its discount rate. Call money has again been performing its gyrations touching the nine per cent. rate. What has been lacking in excitement on the New York Stock Exchange has been made up hy the curb market in mining activity, which has been unprece¬ dented, and there is every reason to believe will continue for some time. Notwithstanding the prevailing great prosperity in business generally throughout the country that the divi¬ dends being paid are very conservative, so that in spite of the disquieting features referred, to, the prospect in the near future cannot be looked upon as otherwise than favorable. THE lease of the southwest corner of Madison Avenue aud 31st Street, which was announced over a week ago, has not received the attention which it deserves. It is stated that the lessee will erect on the plot a ten-story busi¬ ness building, and if such is the case it will be the first im¬ portant business building to be situated on Madison Avenue between 27th and 34st Street. But it will not be the last. The Record and Guide has frequently pointed out that this particular part of Madison Avenue was inevitably destined to be improved with loft buildings. So far, no such im¬ provements have taken place. The new buildings erected on Madison Avenue between 27th and 34th Streets during the past few years have been, witb one exception, apartment hotels, and that exception consists of a woman's athletic club. Moreover, the improvements in the side streets adjoining Madison Avenue have also been, for the most part, apart¬ ment hotels, although some few business buildings have been erected near Fifth Avenue. It is evident, however, that this whole section is becoming much more valuable for business tban it is for hotel purposes. The new wholesale district be¬ tween 14th and 23d streets, and from Broadway to Sixth Avenue, is now tolerably well occupied. The overflow from this district must find the needed room north of 23d Street, and loft buildings are already being erected between Broad¬ way arid Sixth Avenue. But the available area west of Broadway is not large, and the streets ou the East Side will necessarily he engulfed in this irresistible stream of business expansion. Fifth Avenue is, for the most part, given over to the retail trade, aud prices thereon are so high that very few wholesale mei-chants could afford to pay the necessary rent¬ als. But Madison Avenue is admirably adapted to their pur¬ poses. It is a convenient neighborhood, situated near to the most important retail shops in the city, and space can he secured on this part of Madison Avenue at comparatively reasonable prices. Neither is it to be supposed that the property owners will offer any resistance to its improvement with loft buildings- A large proportion of the old brown¬ stone buildings have of late years been occupied as boarding houses, and there has been no attempt to erect modern resi¬ dences on Madison Avenue south of 34th Street, North of 34th Street the property owners ai^e determined that husiness shall be kept out; but the building of tall business edifices is precisely the best thing that could happen to the prop¬ erty owners on lower Madison Avenue. TN SPITE of an increase of $13,000,000 in the municipal -1- budget for the coming year, the tax rate will remain at about the same percentage as that of the present and the past two years; and this is a matter for congratulation. There has been a disposition to criticise the administration because it has, as it M'ere, claimed credit for keeping the tax rate down, on the ground that the tax rate is a deceptive indication of the actual size of the tax bills. It is true that the tax rate is a deceptive indication of the size of the tax bills, which depend, of course, on the scale of assessed valu¬ ations as well; but in the present instance the average assess¬ ment of rea! property in New York City has not been unduly increased. On the contrary, it still remains at about sixty- eight per cent, of the market value of the real estate. So far during the current year the market value of the real estate sold at the price of whicii was expressed in the deed was $58,077,637, and the aggregate assessed valuations of these same properties was $4 0,550,275, The consetiuence is tbat if the tax rate remains the same the average property owner will not have his taxes increased, except in so far as such an increase may be justified by the iiicreased value of his pi-operty. The financial administration of the city is justified in congratulating the city that, in spite of its con¬ stantly expanding responsibilities, the tax rate remains the same, and it should be the aim of the administration to keep the increase of the budget down to the amount of money which can be raised by the application of the e.-^isting rate to the increase in the aggregate valuation of real and personal property. That is a safe rule, no matter what criticism the application of it may incur from those who fail to under¬ stand its validity. THE PROJECT for an elevated road connecting the Wil¬ liamsburgh and the Brooklyn bridges has been iinaily killed so many times by the Rapid Transit Commission that we are inclined to be skeptical about the decisiveness of its recent slaughter. But if a sulflcient number of the members of the Rapid Transit Commission are unalterably opposed to it, the least that body can do under the circumstances is to take prompt action on the next most effective remedial measures. The, decision not to authorize the elevated road must mean that the additional means of communication be¬ tween Brooklyn and Manhattan is to be supplied by subways. Consequently, the tunnel already laid out, practically parallel¬ ing tbe Brooklyn Bridge, should be authorized as soon as possible, and it should be connected in some effectual manner with the subway system of Brooklyn and that of Manhattan, and with the termini of the WiUiamsburgh. the Manhattan and the Blackwell's Island bridges. It is doubtless an un¬ fortunate thing that Brooklyn must wait for effective relief until such a tunnel can be completed and properly connected, but if tbe connections are adequately made Brooklyn will be the gainer in the long run. The elevated connection was, we believe, a means of temporary relief, justified by the acute character of the existing congestion, but it would only have been a "make-shift," which, compared to some more effective means of connection, would soon have been a hindrance rather than a help to the development of Brooklyn. The