Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: [v. 92, no. 2369]: August 9, 1913

Text version:

AND NEW YORK, .AUGUST 9, 1913 THE DVCKM.A..\- SECT10.\, LOOKl.XG -NORTH. Note the facilities for extensive commerce. The bridge connects 207th street, Manhattan, with Fordham road, Bronx. pilllllllliiiR ,!l^ STARTING A NEW BUILDING CAMPAIGN Activity in the Dyckman Section Has Unusual Features—Completed | Houses Readily Tenanted — Building Loans Not Easy to Obtain. | IN the upbuilding of a great city there is so much haphazard develop¬ ment, encouraged by more or less arti¬ ficial methods that it is particularly gratifying to see a comparatively new portion of Manhattan where building improvements are traceable to a definite and legitimate demand. In the Dyckman section there is now progressing a quiet, steady series of building operations, all of which have l^een undertaken on account of a genuine demand for moderate priced elevator and walk-up flats, and not because the liuilding loan oper¬ ator had lots to sell or the big lending institutions were an- .xious to make con¬ struction loans. There is said to be hardly an apart¬ ment house of the many completed in the last two years in which there is an apartment or store to let; in many in¬ stances tenants are moving in before the mechanics have com¬ pleted their work. While this building movement has not been conducted on a very large or com¬ prehensive scale, it has been steady and is increasing in volume right along; and present indications seem to point to the Dyckman as one of the next impor- tatit tlieatres of building operations. Charles Griffith Moses, vice-president of the J. Romaine Brown Company, long considered a foremost authority on north end real estate, says the chief rea¬ son for this state of aflfairs in the Dyck¬ man section is the fact that this is the only section of Manhattan remaining subway stations (existent and not mere¬ ly contemplated) can be purchased at prices that enable the builder to improve them with well-built apartment houses, the flats in which may be rented at six to ten dollars per room, and the rent rolls shovi' a substantial and profitable investment to the ultimate owner. No Semblance of a Boom. "The remarkable feature of this whole condition of affairs," remarked Mr. Moses this week, "is that, in spite of the fact that every builder who has gone J^f^ GE.XEK The where good building lots, contiguous to .\L VIEW OF THE DYCKMAN TRACT. LOOKINtT WEST Hudson River can be seen through the Inwood Hills. into the Dyckman section has come through his operation satisfactorily as to rental, mortgage, and, in many cases, sale of his houses, there is not the slight¬ est semblance of a lot boom, and a num¬ ber of very desirable plots may still be had at figures that must show substan¬ tial profits to the builder. "There is small doubt that if building loan money becomes easier to obtain this fall, and surely this will be the case, we shall witness a strong building move¬ ment that must be satisfactory to the lot owner, builder and investor alike. "Few people realize, too, that the Dyckman includes the only unused and available waterfront suitable for com¬ mercial purposes remaining in Manhat¬ tan, and with the approaching comple¬ tion of the New York State Barge Canal, with its port of call at Dyckman street on the Hudson, and its freight terminal at Academy street on the Harlem River, there will be a tremendous demand for high-class manufacturing and assembling plants right in this section, which will increase the values of the adjoining property for mod¬ erate priced apart¬ ments and stores of all kinds." .\n estimate of population which M. Just, real estate agent and operator in the district, has trans¬ mitted to the Board of Education, put.s thc nunilier at eight thousand by the first of ne.xt January. Thc district has one public school and one church of long .standing,and anojlicr church and a Idrge theatre in course of erection. The streets are paved with as¬ phalt block and soon all the elements of a civic center will be present. .-Mtogether about thirty building oper¬ ations are in hand, and the local authori¬ ties state that activity would be more pronounced this summer but for the diffi¬ culty w-hich builders experience in ob¬ taining loans. However, the money stringency, because of the limitation it places on the volume of construction, is not viewed altogether as a hardship by real estate agents, They say it will br