Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 87 [i.e. 86], no. 2229: December 3, 1910

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December 3, 1910. RECORD AND GUIDE 923 i3ft6ll6TO RpJiESTAlt.BuiLOlhfc A|iaflTECTVlRE,t{aUSIlfOU>DESa(l«10<; Busd/ess A^iD Themes OF GEfiERl^V.ljfTnifST^ PRICE PER YEAR IN ADVANCE EIGHT DOLLARS Communications should h6 AddreBSedl iSt CW, SWEET Published EVertf Saturdap By THE RECORD AKD GTJIDE CO, President, CLINTON W. SWEET Treasurer, F. W. DODQB Vlce-Pres, & Gecl. Mgr.. H. W. DESMOND Secretary, F. T. MILLBB Nos. 11 to 15 East 24tb Street, Neiv York Cltr (Telephone, Madison Square, 4430 to 4433.) "Entered at the Post Office at Neic York, N. Y., as second-class matter." Copyrighted. 1010, by The Record £ Guide Co. Vol, LXXXVli DECEMBEK 0, 1010. No, 222!) SHIFTING CENTERS. THE final opening of the new Penns.ylvania Railroad Station passed off quietly enough; but in the long run it will have a decisive effect upon the distribution of population and business in New York City. In connection with the huge development which has taken place of recent years in the means of communication to Long Island and Kew Jersey it will tend to concentrate business in tbe middle part of Manhattan, and consequently to make it spread eventually from river to river. Its full effect will only be slo'wly Celt, because it will depend upon the slow shifting of centers of population. But there can be no doubt that ultimately the consequence will be as described, Tbe labor employed in Manhattan business will be drawn from the east and tbe west raore than from tbe north, because cheaper land will be made accessible to the east and the west; and as population gathers along the new routes it will be bound more closely to Manhattan in every way. It will use centrally situated Manhattau as restaur¬ ants and places of amusement, and most assuredly such of these people who regularly use the Pennsylvania Station will have tbe pleasure of entering New York by the noblest gateway ever provided by any transit company or municip¬ ality. The Pennsylvania Railroad has not received anything Hke the credit which it siiould have received for the mag¬ nificent way in which it has planned and built its terminal. It is the most beautiful and dignified monument of its kind in the world, and we doubt whether any other railroad com¬ pany will ever build its like in this country. It was the product and symbol of a large and generous mind and policy, and in days of drastic public regulation railroad com¬ panies cannot afford to be large-minded and generous. MAYOR GAYNOR'S STAND. THE absorbing topic of conversation with everybody interested iu real estate continues to be the con¬ troversy over the construction and the operation of the Triborough route. There have been no new developments during the past week, and no final opinion can be expressed until the new proposals of Mr. McAdoo and the Inter¬ borough Company have been submitted. In the meantime the opponents of the Triborough route are placed at a dis¬ advantage for two reasons. They can point out very grave defects in the line of the Broadway, Lexington Avenue Sub¬ way, and in the details of the engineering plans, and they can show clearly that the city is taking a grave risk in attempting to finance such an unnecessarily expensive enter¬ prise. But their arguments do not command the considera¬ tion they deserve because opposition to the Triborough route appears to be in the interest of an unpopular transit monopoly, and because any alternative plan will necessarily prolong the already intolerable delay in the construction of new subways. Under these circumstances the stand taken by Mayor Gaynor is worthy of the highest praise and should be supported by all taxpayers who are interested in the welfare of the whole city rather tban in the interest of any particular locality. All that the Mayor asks is that the case be not prejudged until all the evidence has been submitted. He is prepared to accept the Triborough route, provided no quicker and more economical method of obtain¬ ing rapid transit can be planned; but he believes that some such alternative is possible, and he wants public-spirited citizens to support him in giving patient and exhaustive consideration to these alternatives. In assuming this atti¬ tude he is risking his popularity, for the yellow journals froth at the merest suggestion of accepting any proposition from the Interborough Company, no matter how, advan- tageous'it may be, but for that very reason good citizens should stand behind him in his attempt to make the best possible bargain for the whole city. In case all other alter¬ natives prove to be unacceptable, he is prepared, just as the Record and Guide is prepared, to favor the early con¬ struction of the Triborough route. But until all better alternatives are excluded, good citizens and prudent tax¬ payers should keep an open mind. That is all the Mayor asks, and surely the request is not unreasonable. LOSING GROUND. MR. McADOO'S first proposition has undoubtedly lost ground during the past week. It satisfled nobody, and its author has been busily conferring with the disap¬ pointed advocates of the subway system, which has been cut to pieces by the first serious proposal to operate it. Nothing more need be said about it, until the terms of the new proposal have been announced; but it is worth while to consider why it was that the proposition of Mr. McAdoo was necessarily so unsatisfactory, both from the operative and the financial standpoint. The reason undoubtedly is that the Triborough route as a purely business enterprise cannot command any financial support. No body of cap¬ italists wonld invest the indefinite number of millions which the whole systera would coat with any expectation of proflt for many years. The consequence is that any company which bids for the operation of the route and proposes to put up the millions necessary for its equipment, is obliged to ask for a flrst lien upon its earnings. On no other basis could the capital be raised. Of course, a company like the Interborough, with assets of enormous value, could pledge its existing assets as security, but Mr, McAdoo's company has no assets which have not already been mortgaged for the largest part o! their valne. That company couid not borrow $50,000,000 on its own credit any more quickly than an ordinary business raan could. So it is obliged to ask the city to pledge an investment of $100,000,000 or more in order that its tenant may raise half that sum. Then it becomes easy. Anybody can borrow $50,000,000, provided soraebody else will put up $100,000,000 as security. The peculiar aspect of the proposed contract is, however, that the City of New York would be investing $100,000,000 or more in a system which would be operated partly for the purpose of encouraging its inhabitants to live in New Jersey. New Jersey is entitled to all the present inhabitants of New York who find it to their interest to take up their residence across the river; but it does look a little strange to ask Brooklyn and Manhattan taxpayers to mortgage their real estate for the construction of a sub¬ way operated by a company whose chief interest lies in the development of New Jersey. The Record and Guide is perfectly willing to admit that a contract of this kind may eventually be forced on the city, but It is certainly advisable to look sharp and long for some better method. And if such a contract does become necessary, it stands to reason that the city which assumes all the risk should appropriate the major part of any possible future profit. WHY NOT BE REASONABLE? WHY in the world the Interborough Company should not ofter to operate the Triborough route on the terms proposed by Mr. McAdoo, but with transfers to its present system, the Record and Guide cannot imagine. Those terras look good enough to tempt even the skilled financiers which control the destinies of that corporation. The failure of the Public Service Commission to obtain any bids for the construction of the Triborough route from private capitalists, combined with the extremely bad bar¬ gain which Mr. l\IcAdoo has oifered to the city, has placed the Interborough Company in an extremely advantageous position. It really controls the situation—all that it has to do is to make a proposition which will satisfy some of the local interests which are working for the Triborough route, and it can win without any trouble. An offer along the fol¬ lowing lines would almost certainly prove to be acceptable: The immediate construction of a Lexington Avenue and a Seventh Avenue subway, operated in connection with the existing system. The immediate construction of a new tun¬ nel to Brooklyn, and any Brooklyn or Bronx extensions which the city was willing to pay for, and assume the risk