Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: [v. 89, no. 2300]: April 13, 1912

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^d®m APRIL 13, 1912 A PROMISING MERCANTILE THOROUGHFARE. The Projected Improvements on Seventh Avenue Should Make it Attract¬ ive to Speculative Builders—It May Rival Fourth Avenue in Time. TcIE most remarkable feature of the real eatate market In the last few years has been the unu.'sually large demand for avenue building sites and this has been decidedly pronounced in the territory gen¬ erally known as the new- midtown mer¬ cantile distnict. Since 1008, Fourth ave¬ nue has been very largely rebuilt, Madi¬ son avenue has undergone many changes. Fifth avenue has made pronounced gains in the way of new structures and plots on Broadway have been taken up almost as soon as they appeared in the market. Prices have risen on these avenues and the available supply of suitable building plots has been decreased ito such an ex¬ tent that speculative builders are find¬ ing it exceediingly difficult to obtain new locations for additonal structures and are therefore turning their eyes towards anore undeveloped thoroughfares. Among the several subdivisions of the new mercantile district, (the locality which now seems most promising for future development is that west of Broadway and north of 34th street, and the avenues most likely to be considered are Sixth and Seventh, Sixth avenue, however, Is decidedly handicapped by the posseasion of the elevated structure which, while it is the means of bringing retail trade to .the street, is a serious detriment to the upper portions of thu structuz'es along the way. In addHtion to fare will be created from the heart of the amusement district, along the western side of the present mercantile section and continuing in a fatlrly straight line to the margin of the financial district. This will afford a much needed artery of travel from the wholesale center to the Chelsea Piers and the Public Stores. II win be so central that it may well prove a popular line for motor travel be¬ tween the hotel and financial districts and will offer a short route for cab service between the New York Central and Pennsylvania terminals and the steam¬ ship docks. The avenue is to be 100 feet wide from West Broadway to 59th street and will have ample room for drays and motor trucks. The extension has been approved by the Board of Estimate and it is ex¬ pected that actual work will be started in ten or twelve months. Considerable dissatisfaction has been expressed by Seventh avenue property owners with the tentative area of assessment for this im¬ provement and an endeavor will be made 10 have it increased, particularly above 18lh street. The area now begins at 4'Jnd street and. as far south as 18th street, extends east and west only about 400 feet. As the present mercantile district between Sixth and Seventh avenues and the two blocks immediately west of Seventh avenue will surely derive their AA'est Side and the Seventh avenue sub¬ w'ay offers the only adequate soutlon. Its connection with Brooklyn and the lines from the Bronx and Queens means ■that workers living in the outlying dis¬ tricts can reach the AVest Side as easily a.s they can any olher portion of the city and do it on a five cent fare. WithjouL the subway Fourth avenue would not have obtained its present po¬ sition in the mercantile world in spite of its nearness to Broadway, and Seventh avenue, with rapid transit, appears to of¬ fer opportunities similar to those on the eastern thoroughfare. There are many wholesale and manufac turing lines not yet represented in the uptown centers and many of these will eventually move north. More manufacturing will un¬ doubtedly be found in the future on Seventh avenue than on Fourth, but it will not be surprising if rents and values on Seventh avenue very closely approxi¬ mate 'those on Fourth avenue within a few years. Lines of business which might be induced to locate In the Seventh ave¬ nue district include manufacturers and wholesalers of clothing, millinery, feath¬ ers, hats, ecclesiastical goods and crock¬ ery. Already the National Cloak and .Suit Company, one of the largest of mail¬ order houses, has established its big plant on the avenue and the convenience of¬ fered by the postoffice at the Pennsylva- THE PENNSYLVANIA STATION, THE FIRST GREAT IMPROVEMENT ON SEVENTH AVENUE. this, prices have ranged high in expecta- ition that the retail trade w^ould spread further north and continue to increase in volume. Prices on Seventh avenue have remained much lower than those on Sixth and would not constitute any ob¬ stacle to immediate improvement. In view of this fact and of the now almost positive assurance that two great muncipal improvements will be car¬ ried out on Seventh avenue, it seems probable that this thoroughfare is next in line for mercantile development and that it is destined soon to become as im¬ portant from a business standpoint aa its - general strategic position would appear ito warrant. The three principal forces in the ul- lunate developmenl of Seventh avenue are the Pennsylvania railroad station,, the opening of the thoroughfare a,t it.s southerly end and the extension of the Broadway subway down Seventh avenue and the entire West Side. Of these but one is an accomplished fact and the ex¬ pected results therefrom have not been strongly felt up to the present time. The Pennsylvania station has been built but as yet has only been used for through trains from the West and South and a portion of the Long Island traffic. The extension of Seventh avenue from its present terminus at Greenwich avenue south to "Varick street, bids fair to be one of the most beneficial of recent street changes in the City. A new thorough- fair share of the benefits accruing from the extension, the feeling prevails that it would be only just to widen this area and perhaps carry it north to .^9th street. South of 18th street the area is consid¬ erably wider and seems more equitable. The third and apparently most import¬ ant factor in the future of Seventh ave¬ nue is the subway and, in view of the passage of rapid transit legislation and the favorable action of the Mayor and Board of Estimate, an extension of the Broadway line from 42nd street now seems assured. The beneflt from such a line can scarcely be even estimated. Not only will Seventh avenue be enormously helped but the en'tire AA''est Side from 42iid street lo the Battery will be made very accessible from all parts of the city. That part of the avenue north of 32nd street M'ill become available for retail trade, hotels and restaurants. The por¬ tion below the terminal will present ex¬ cellent opportunities for wholesale and ananiifacturing concerns which have heretofore largely avoided the district on account of its inaccesgibllity. The new mercantile colony in the old Ninth Ward will derive an immense benefit and the entire wholes;iIe and manufacturing dis¬ trict of the lower West Side will no longer lliie practically isolated from the more ac¬ tive centers. The problem of obtaining sufficient labor has always been one of the serious features to be considered by manufacturers wishing to locate on the nia terminal is likely to draw others in the same line. Among those who have been most ac¬ tive in advocating the improvements of the thoroughfare is the iSeventh Avenue Association, a strong local organization composed of property owners and promi¬ nent merchants in the vicinity. The as¬ sociation has done excellent work at the various hearings in this city and in Al¬ bany on the subway questions and the matter of the Seventh avenue extension. At the instance of the association the New Tork Kailway.s Company has agreed that, after June 1, it will run its Sth street crosstown cars up Seventh avenue to l:)4th street. Some of these go as far east as Delancey street and others run over the Williamsburg Bridge. This will provide much better surface car accom¬ modations for factory wcti-kers at the lower end of the avenue as the Seventh avenue cars at preseni do not go below .Sixth avenue and Sth street, and most of the factory hands live on the lower East Side or in Broooklyn. It is also hoped that before long the Company will slill further extend its service by carrying the Seventh avenue cars across G3d street and then north on Columbus and Amsterdam avenues to 106th street. In addition to the other modes of travel projected for Seventh avenue, the Fifth Avenue Coach Company intends, if per¬ mission can be obtained, to run some of its motor busses across 34th street to (l)i>