The herald., 1897-10-07

In regard to the extensive building op-
erations that are being carried on in the
business part of town leading archi-
tect noted for his conservative ten
encies, expresses the opinion that in
this line of Improvement enough and per-
haps more thar enough has been done
to justify any expectation of an ade-
quate return upon the outlay involved.
1t is a matter of common observation
that the new business buildings, as fast
as they have been finished, have been
largely filled up by terants recruited
from ol6aer and less desirable blocks.
In word, the influx of new tenants is
not sufficient to justify the amount of
building that is now going on, and more
of which is in prospect.
Without any desire to cast wet blan-
ket upon any projected enterprise we
think it advisable TO call the attention of
property owners to the existing con-
ditions. Those who can afford to build
for the future market are safe enough
but If the ranks of tenants are to be
made up simply from those who are al
ready doing business here, there can be
no gain in the general prosperity, but
rather the reverse. Terants of business
property are very naturally Gesirous of
obtaining a reduction in their rents, and
the methods which some of them indulge
in in order TO attain this desirable re-
suit are worth notice, and perhaps ac-
count to some extent for few of the
buildings now going up. AS the archi-
tect above quoted said: Tenants are
getting sharp and they are working the
landlords for all that is out. A favorite
plar is for a merchant to go to an archi-
tect and tell him that If he can induce
an owner to put up building in GER
tain location he would likely become a
tenant. The architect thereupon goes 10
the owner and tells him that if he will
put up certain class of building he car
get him certain tenants. In one case
alone I know Of firm paying over $500
a month rent which has had at one time
five different property owners on the
string, each one thinking that he was
the oniy one approached, and all of them
willing to build with the expectation of
capturing such a desirable tenant"
There are two sides to every story, and
while within certain narrow limits store
keepers are paying what they deem to
be excessive rentals, yet it must be re-
membered that the store keepers them.
selves make these rentals through their
competition with one another. Upon
the completion of the buildings now in
progress, not to mention those which
| are in contemplation, there will no doubt
| be a scaling down of rents among those
who are row paying in excess.
\ 4 y
The street paving question is still an
| unsolved problem, but there seems to be
every probability, now that the scheme
| Of putting needless sewer along Spring
street has been denied, that the resur-
| facing will be accomplished. A number
of property owners have signad petit
ton for such resurfacing to be done pro-
viding the cost does not exceed cents
per square foot. This is equal to 81 62
per fron,t foot without counting the ex-
tras for expenses and intersections,
which would certainly keep the expenses
somewhere in the neighborhood of, say
$175 per runrtng foot. AS has been
pointed out before in this column, the
most economical plan that the property
owners can possibly adopt is to do this
resurfa cirg at once. 1t has been wrong
~ assumed that the city has paid for
keeping the asphalted streets in repair
since they were laid. The fact is that
the contractors on Main and Sprir,,
streets gave bonds at the time of OBJ
tanning the work to keep those streets
in repair for a period. of five years, and
the repairs were faithfully kept up for
the full period OF five years after the
laying of the pavements and without
any expense to the city or to the prop
erty owners. At the expiration, of the
guaranteed period only. the city has
sumed the charge of the streets and for
time kept them irs repair; then the
work was neglected and small holes
were allowed to become large holes, and
in many cases the foundation has beer
injured. If the city officials had attend