The San Francisco call., 1907-02-16
Observation-Disclosures
the Return Of Sunshine
Several Large Deals Mark Weeks Report

There were two Important real estate
transactions during the week. The
I1, nrst was the lease made by Raphael
Wen OF the Sutter street and Grant
avenue property belonging to Mrs
Frank j. Sullivan. which was made
through the firm Of Baldwin & Howell:
the second transaction was the lease Of
the gore corner Of Market Ellis and
stockton streets 70 the Western Ma
uonal safe Deposit Company through
Speck & Co. This property has front
age or l5S feet on Market street, 129
feet on Ellis, and contains an area of a
little more than 5000 square feet The
lease is for a period OF forty years
ana the total rental amounts to
Sl,6s0 600.
The property. which belongs to Cora
Jane Flood, was leased in August. 1906,
TO e syndicate, composed of Maurice
Rosenthal, Nate Scharlin and AIyer
Friedman. The original lessees have
transferred their interest in the lease
hold 10 the Western National Safe De-
post Company, ROsenthal and Scharlin
transferring their interests absolutely
and Friedman receiving for his interest
certain amount Of the stock of the
corporation
1t is the intention Of the corporation
70 proceed Immediately with the erec-
ton upon this site OF an eight-story re-
inforced concrete building, containing a
store basement and 140 offices.
The structure will cost $250,0oo and
Il is expected that it will be completed
by September l. 1t is TO be a high
class Office building. equipped with
three fast running elevators and pro-
Nideo with every modern convenience.
Speck & Co. have been appointed
agents for the building, and they re-
port that several good offers for the
ground floor have already been made by
prominent mercantile firms
MORE CONFIDENCE FELT
Real estate men have assumed g
more confident air. They note the full
hliment Of their prophecies that with
the advent of spring there would be a
revival Of the market. There has been
q steadily growing inquiry for down
town property and the announcement
that the White House would resume
business on Sutter street and Grant
avenue has helped the advancement Of
Grant avenue IN the opinion Of some
operators, Grant avenue will house the
better class stores. They say that much
shopping is done by carriage folk" and
Grant avenue has the advantage OF be-
ing free from car lines, which makes
Il easier for the driver and also less
dangerous for the occupants of vehicles.
The character Of Kearny street. they
affirm, is slowly changing Il will Nbe
pre-eminently an Office street, with a
certain class Of stores. The shopkeep-
ers there viii not cater ito quality
but TO quantity" as Kearny street Will
he the great artery from North Beach
10 the Southern Pacific depot and viii
always have big patronage. A we'll
known real estate man said yesterday:
Gesry street Win be the best business street
Goa ~ So 60 90 49, -1-.A
Geary. Post and Suffer VIII All be better than
they before the Ere. This IS shown bv
the number Of inquiries mat are being made
ae 70 locatlons Tor storee. In fact. the retail
district VIII Be a lrtle farther west than for
merly and VIII be included in the territory
rom Sutter street south and from Powell east,
with AearnF the dividing line east and Mar
~ket the dividing line south Our retail mer-
chants are, realizing that window display counts.
and VIII . lturally 20 into district where r1ey
can get re necessary window space. There IS
not merchant in town nat does not expect
% do q larger business than be did before the
fire. and he wants more room and consequently
larger store This is why Raphael Well went
70 Suffer street and Grant avenue. He will
get the window space and seven out Of every ten
merchants are looking for fifty-vars lots
Our property owners should encourage the
downtown movement. Every merchant IS deter
mined 10 come down town and rebuild the city
along its old lines. The merchant, however. re-
CARDS the necessity Of moving down town some
what IN the nature Of experiment. He is
fearful that before he is well established his
store nay not oe payisg venture. and be be
leves he should be granted some concession by
owner Would md It profitable to Charge sI abouf enf
% per cent less for the nrst two years and
when N. ne man gets well 1 established he could
advisable. but 50 far as I know. with the ex-
cepton OF one land owner. this does not recon
mend itself 10 the general consideration The
land owner answers that the retail merchant has
70 come down town and there IS an end TO the
discussion Van Ness aFerue viii not suffer. II
VIII be a street OF private hotels and epsrt.
ment houses, with, perhaps, scattering OF
stores.
REVIVAL OF BUSINESS
Vice President A P Gianninni OF
the Bank Of Italy. who is largely in
terested in building all over the city
remarked yesterday that we are only
just entering on the work Of construc-
ton. Continuing, he said:
always said that with the beginning OF
good weather San Francisco would begin to 20
forward with leaps and bounds. There is one
thing people de not seem TO realize. The down
town district VIII be built up before they
many one-story buildings being put up vhici
do not, at present, make any showing but
within few months they VIII make the down
town district look inhabited. We must guard
against q shortage Of material. Every effort
must be made. and that early. 10 provide
against any such contingency. We have been
little hampered IN building for the wani
Of rock, but we have put into service g num-
Der Of scows TO haul rock from California CITY
and have thus been enabled to keep on work.
ing. We must have more Iaborers. The man
with the wheelbarrow IS the man we want.
To give you some idea Of the extent OF build.
ing operations you cannot buy old brick now.
All have been contracted for.
I was speaking TO prominent builder the
other day and be told me that from now on
three shifts would be employed on all the
large buildings and that work would be a
continuous performance. he says It has beer
his experience that the men do better and
faster work between the hours Of p. N. and
2 a. n than at any other time. They will
euuior three shifts I told, the new
white House, and you VIII within a few
weeks the spectacle Of city being built IN
frantic haste
wfi leave for New York next week and
I an going 70 lesrn for myself what the East
ern people really think Of US. / may continue
nv trfp to Europe and VIII do what I can to
advertise California.
BUSIEST STREET IN CITY
Montgomery street, north from Cali
fornfa, to Washington, is probably the