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. 87, no. 2242: March 4, 1911

Real Estate Record page image for page ldpd_7031148_047_00000431

Text version:

Please note: this text may be incomplete. For more information about this OCR, view About OCR text.
Maixh '4, igii RECORD AND GUIDE 385 ESTABUSHED^M,iUy:HSW^1868. Devoted P R^tEsTAii. gui ldij/g V1;fici{itecture .HcfUsnJoU) DEGQf^norf, Bi/sii/ESS AffoThemes of GEffeRAl Interest. PRICE PER YEAR IN ADVANCE EIGHT DOLLARS Communications should "he addressed to C. W. SWEET Fubiished Every Saturday By THE RECORD AND GUIDE CO. President, CLINTON W. SWEET Treasurer, F. W. DODGE Vice-Pres. Sc Genl. Mgr., H. W. DESMOND Secretary, P. T. MILLER Nos. 11 to 15 East a4th Street, New Xork City (Telephone, Madison Square, 4430 to 4-133.) "Entered at tho Post Ofl 'ice at Netc York. N. Y-. as second- -class ii[ cttcr." Copy rii;h ted. 1311. by The Record Sc Guida 1 Co, Vol. LXXXVI. MARCH 4, 1911. No, 2242 borrow a certain amount of it on first mortgage on the real estate purchased and sell income bonds, bearing a compara¬ tively high rate of interest, to investors. All these meth¬ ods inducing the small investor to put iu his nioEey will be used still more freely in the future than they have heen in the past; and in order to accelerate the process it would, be of the" utmost assistance to establish an exchange for real estate securities of all kinds, so that a quicker market than any which now exists, could be established for such securities. Such a marlvet is hound to come, and its com¬ ing will be much accelerated by the gradually increasing prospects of the real estate investment corporation. For the day of such corporations is most assuredly coming. They are rendered inevitable by the large capital required by real estate operations in a city like New York, arad by the steady introduction of conservative methods into rea] estate financ¬ ing and speculation. It can be confidently predicted that the real estate, investment companies of larger capitalization will make greater strides in popularity and influence dur¬ ing the next ten years than they have during the past ten. REVOLUTIONARY PROPOSALS, THE Committee on Congestion of Population, which was, appointed a year ago to ascertain the best meaus of distributing population more uniformly, has in its report to Mayor Gaynor naturally recommended as a primal pro¬ ceeding a reduction of the permissible capacity of tenement houses in all parts of the city. To effect this, the Commis¬ sion -would permit the height of no tenement house here¬ after erected anywhere to exceed the width of the street on which it shall stand. The enforcement of such a law In Manhattan would revolutionize real estate conditions. The total consequences cannot he readily estimated. The per¬ missible height of a house on a 60-ft. street would be but flve stories, unless unusual measures were taken to lessen the thickness of the floors or the height of the ceilings, when six stories could he obtained on streets of this width. But under a rule of this sort, it is to be supposed, the present 5-sty. houses would he permitted to remain In- deflnitely In the localities where they now constitute the dominant type. There could be no profltable replacement of such houses, no reconstruction in neighborhoods already improved, at least for many years to come, and 'the only thing to do for speculative builders would be to Improve every remaining vacant lot and tract in Manhattan and theu move on to the Bronx. This is not saying that such a proceeding would not be a good result for the public as p. whole. The Commission evidently believes that it would, but it is a prospect for Mauhattan real estate interests to contemplate. One suggestion made by the committee that will probably be widely approved, especially in the Bronx. i^ that the Tenement House Law be so niodifled as to permit of detached three-family houses outside of the tenement classjflcation. There is a gen-eral public desire for this in the Bronx, where the increase in land values and building costs hag made the two-family dwelling a less desirable form of investment for homeseekers than it formerly was. Every meaus should still he used to encourage home-build¬ ing in the Bronx, rather than liave tlie borough given over entirely in the future to tenements. TRADING IN REAL ESTATE BONDS. IT is very much to be hoped that the Real Estate Board of Brokers will succeed in its efforts to bring about reg¬ ular trading on the Board in the bonds issued as a part of first mortgages on large buildings, and, indeed, of all real estate securities. Every practicable means of facilitating the investment of small sums in paper, secured either by the ownership of real estate or by mortgages issued against such ownership, will help the process of real estate investment. The value of the average lot in Manhattan has been so great, the cost of the average building so huge, and the amount of the average mortgage so considerable, that only a rich man or a large institution could supply all the money re¬ quired hy such transactions. It is necessary, consequently, in order to attract the small investor, to offer him a small share of some loan or of the value of some plot, and during the past twenty years many different methods have been developed for accomplishing this result. Mortgage companies lend the money and sell either their own securities to in¬ vestors or the mortgage itself. Bonds are issued against large buildings, and sold piecemeal to individuals, or corpor¬ ations with large capital invest their money in real estate. INFLUENCE OF THE PENNSYLVANIA TERMINAL. RECENTLY several announcements have been made of the starting of new hotel and amusement enterprises in the neighborhood of the Pennsylvania Terminal. Besides the large hotel which will be erected on Greeley Square, and the other hotel which eventually ig almost sure to be built op¬ posite the station itself, several smaller hotels are being con¬ sidered, as well as one theatre, and a numher of smaller places of amusement of the same kind. It will be very in¬ teresting to observe during the next few years how far thia tendency may be expected to carry. The Record and Guide has always anticipated that the effect of the Pennsylvania Terminal would be to develop in its immediate vicinity en¬ terprises of this kind, and assuming that the Pennsylvania and Long Island tunnels would become the two great routes, whereby the inhabitants of certain parts of Long Island and New Jersey would reach Manhattan for the purpose of going to retail stores and of amusing themselves, it seemed rea¬ sonable to a^nticipate that the terminal point of these tun¬ nels would become an important centre of the retail restau¬ rant and theatre business. Until recently, however, thia view was not conflrmed hy any so marked invasion of tlie neighborhood by new enterprises of this class. A few new retail stores and a few third-rate hotels were the ouly ad¬ ditions to its business features which could be traced to the Terminal. In the meantime the whole surrounding territory .was being more and more occupied by the wholesale trade, and it was obvious that if this occupation became complete, the neighborhood would obtain a character which would make it much less available for shops, hotels, theatres aud restaurants. During the current season, however, the work of building new loft huildings along the line of Seventh ave¬ nue, which has by no means entirely ceased, has been pro¬ ceeding much more slowly; and, on the other hand, there has been, as we have seen, an increased activity in hotels aud places of amusement. Is there any reason to suppose that this increased activity will continue? AN UNSETTLED QUESTION. IN view of the greater energy with which the wholesale trade is pushing into the neighborhood of the Pennsyl¬ vania Terminal, it would be dangerous to predict that it has any great future as a centre of retail trade, theatres and the like. AH that can he claimed at present is that the question is not yet settled. The Pennsylvania Terminal has not as yet had an opportunity of showing what effect it will ultimately have; and six or seven years must elapse before the mature of its influence will be plainly visible. It must be remembered that hitherto only a certain fraction of the Long Island trains are running into the Terminal, and that on the New Jersey side no local trains are using it. Another couple of years may elapse before anything like a complete service is installed. Nor is this all. Even after a complete service is installed its full effects will only be slowly visible. An improvement such as the Pennsylvania tunnels little by little creates the business which makes it profitable. Peo¬ ple now employed or doing business throughout the middle West Side of Manhattan will tend more and more to live in- neighborhoods across the two rivers, served hy the tunnels; but it will take some years for this tendency to become dom¬ inant. But as it becomes more and more powerful, an in¬ creasing population in New Jersey and Long Island will be using the tunnels as their chief highway of travel; and they will be dependent on the middle West Side in Manhattan, not