Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: [v. 96, no. 2471: Articles]: July 24, 1915

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REAL ESTATE AND NEW YORK, JULY 24, 191,5 |llllllllllllllllllllilllilllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllilllll ...............lllllllillllilillilllllllililllillllillilll I A CONFERENCE ON WEST SIDE IMPROVEMENTS I Two Sets of Plans Under Consideration by the Port and Terminal | Committee — Engineer Bolton Would Tunnel Riverside Drive | liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii pURSUANT to a call issued by the ■*. Committee on Port and Terminal Facilities of the Board of Estimate and Apportionment, reciting that the com¬ mittee had completed its study of the proposed readjustment of the West Side tracks of the New York Central Rail¬ road Company to a point where it would be valuable to have the suggestions of those individuals and civic bodies that have studied the matter and have reached conclusions with regard to various de¬ tails of the proposed settlement, a joint committee of representatives of various organizations interested in this matter met on Thursday moruing of this week in the Comptroller's office. The Mayor, the Comptroller, the Commissioner of Public Works and the Dock Commis¬ sioner represented the city. Rev. Dr. Peters appeared as chairman of a com¬ mittee fonned of about fourteen asso¬ ciations interested in the solution of this important question. Mr. Harrison, from the office of the Dock Commissioner, submitted plans and drawings, showing two plans along the waterfront. One of the plans provided for a tunnel and one for a cov¬ ered track from 72nd street to 125th street. Mr. Harrison also explained at length the plan for the section between Dyckman street and Spuyten Duyvil. The Comptroller requested criticisms and suggestions of the plan, as it was submitted, in sections. The Bolton Plan. Reginald Pelham Bolton, C. E., offered some criticisms and in the course of the discussion produced a complete set of maps, showing a proposed tunnel far¬ ther east than the plan proposed by the Dock Department, extending from Spuy¬ ten Duyvil to 72nd street. Considerable discussion ensued as to the relative merits of a covered freight road and a freight road in a tunnel. The general consensus of opinion favored the latter plan, which Mr, Bolton had fully developed, although the cost of either plan was not announced. In the course of the argument, refer¬ ence was made several times to the own¬ ership by the railroad of the track which it occupies along the waterfront, 66 feet in width, and which it was proposed to exchange with the city for land far¬ ther eastward. Mr. J. Bleecker Miller, secretary of the United Real Estate Owners' .'Xssociation and also of the League to End Death Avenue, remarked tliat the committee seemed to be under the same erroneous impression as to title of the railroad and the city to the track occupied by the railroad as it was- two years ago, when the last meeting of the committee of the Board of Esti¬ mate was adjourned for the purpose of investigating this very question of title; that, on this section, south of Dyckman street to Spuyten Duyvil, the railroad owned only about one-third and the city owned two-thirds. The Question of Title. The Mayor reinarked that the qires- tion of title was being gone into ex¬ haustively by the Corporation Counsel and that no action would be taken until REGl.NALD PELHAM BOLTON, C, E, Has submitted plans to the Mayor tor a relo¬ cation of the New York Central's West Side tracks, a report on the title of every piece of land had been received and an estimate made of its value. A request for copies of the plan pro¬ posed by the Dock Department, so that the various property owners' organiza¬ tions mi,ght study it, was met with a promise to consider the question by the city officials, Charles L. Craig, on behalf of the West End Association, ex¬ pressed the hope that the pressing ques¬ tion caused by the docks for removal of ashes and garbage would not be lost sight of. The meeting adjourned to pennit the Dock Commissioner and his experts to consider more fully Mr. Bolton's plans for an all-tunnel route. So soon as they reach a conclusion, another meeting will be called by the Comptroller. The plans provide for removing the Manhattanville freight yard entirely to the east of the present tracks and locating it on prop¬ erty now vacant. They also provide for a tunnel under Riverside Drive from Alanhattan Valley to 72d street. Will Speed the Plans. It was made evident at the meeting that the city officials have decided to make an earnest effort to solve the West Side transportation problem as soon as possible. Representatives from the Ad¬ visory Council of Real Estate Interests, the West End Association and the Lhiited Real Estate Owners' Association appeared for the real estate interests. The West End Association has for years endeavored to rectify the conditions on the west side of Manhattan Island and has accomplished much resultant good to property owners along Riverside Drive. Its members have consistently striven for a proper improvement that will not only be satisfactory to real es¬ tate interests, but will likewise afford the city and the New York Central Rail¬ road suitable transportation and termi¬ nal facilities. To accomplish the neces¬ sary disentan.glcment of the many com¬ plex and intricate lines involved, the West End Association has fou.ght its bat¬ tle in the courts and Legislature quite successfully. The .Advisory Council of Real Estate Interests recently decided to co-operate with the city authorities and the local real estate owners in their efforts to solve the problein. A representative of the council said: Will Revitalize Real Estate. "We have conferred with the various parties interested, particularly impress- mg upon public officials the need for iin- mediate action, for the matter has been lield in abeyance for too long a time. But lately the State courts expressed themselves quite forcibly as to the desul¬ tory and dilatory manner in which the entire proceedings were being conducted. The Advisory Council then concluded that it would be expedient for the vari¬ ous real estate interests of the city to unite with the West End Association in a consideration of the entire plan, for in its opinion a proper solution would do much to revitalize real estate in the lower and central sections of West Man¬ hattan. In addition a comprehensive im¬ provement should be designed that would conserve property values and park spaces along Riverside Drive. However, it is essential that arteries of commerce and transportation be so developed on the lower West Side that the old cominer- cial and business activity be revived, and the old marts of industry be re¬ opened. A proper solution of the West Side problem must provide for such an avenue of transportation. "Probably one of the principal rea¬ sons for a decline in property values in lower west Manhattan has been the in¬ anition of business caused by a lack of transportation facilities. By depriving this section of the city of suitable means to develop its commercial needs there has been evolved the lamentable depres¬ sion in real estate values that are evi¬ dent to-day. To remedy this situation, the Advisory Council has decided to de¬ vote considerable attention to a study of fitting trackage accommodations for the lower West Side which will simulta¬ neously permit an appropriate remedy for the annoyance ami objections to the New York Central development along Riverside Drive on the part of property owners thereby affected." The Brooklyn Marginal Road. The Eastern railroad companies which expect to use the Brooklyn Marginal Railroad have appointed a special com¬ mittee of technical engineers to go all over the ground and report on the prob¬ able cost of the undertaking, what ad¬ vantages would accrue to the railroads, and, in fact, on everything involved in the big project. The committee com¬ prises Engineer Stuart of the Baltimore & Ohio, Engineer Kitridge of the New York Central and Engineer Rogers of the Pennsylvania. Tliese three experts have been pro¬ vided with nuarters in the office of the Dock Department, at Pier A, Manhat¬ tan, and are now engaged in their in¬ vestigation. Their report will be made to the committee representing all the railroads concerned, which is headed by Ralph Peters, the president of the Long Island Railroad. Until this report is made the negotiations will wait.