The sun., 1909-11-14
TIE REAL ESTATE MARKET
A BIG WEEK IN HIGH PRICE
INVESTMENTS.
Expensive Holdings In Fifth AVenue
Broad street, Broadway and Other
Prominent Locations Figured In the
trading The sloane LeaaohOld.


Last week was q notably active one in
the real estate market. The volume of
c-pltaI invested was exceptionally large.
Indeed one may question whether it has
aver before been exceeded in any one
week in even boom periods. Transac-
tons of the first ma gnitude were reported
from nearly all the boroughs and from
many Of the suburbs. There was no i'm
portant class of realty in which the deal
ing was not at least normal, while high
price realty was traded in on a big scale
Office buildings, mercantile buildings,
buildings in the fashionable shopping
district, Fifth avenue residences, elevator
apartment houses and extensive holdings
of valuable land all figured conspicuousIy
in the weeks brokerage and auction news.
The feature OF the trading was the
demand for expensive property, from
acreage tracts in the suburbs to business
premises in Manhattan. A large propor-
ton OF the dealing was OF the professio onal
order but most, Of the purchases that
could be classed as professional fore
shadow building improvements and will
furnish productive employment to labor
and capital. Meanwhile a fair share Of
the buy lps. was done by investors. and
some Of the biggest transactions OF the
week we're OF the kind by which realty
Ia taken permanently out OF the market
Among the leading Investment deals were
the sale of the Vesey street auction room
TO the Astor estate and the purchase Of
a Broad street building by Congressman
Franus Button Harrison.
The lease by which w. a j. Sloane
4. acquired the northerly half Of the Wind
sor Arcade block as a site for a new store
Is remarkable for several reasons. One
Of these is the choice Of location. Until
quite recently the big retail houses NOV
ing into Fifth avenue have preferred sites
below Forty-second street adjacent to
Murray Hill. The conviction is now
growing. however. that the fashiona BILE
resistance quarter south OF Forty-second
street s bound to be crowded out before
long At present. consequently, not a
few Of the retail houses catering TO the
trade of the fashionable residence colony
are showing a preference for locations
north of Forty-second street.
Another reason which makes the sloane
deal interesting is that the firm is to build
on a leasehold site. Heretofore in New
p York the disadvantages connected with
leaseholds have not been Offset by con-
siderations weighty enough to make
The chances OF Unforeseen increases Of
rent have been too good in the light Of
experience for owners to care to tie up
their land. while purchase money mort
cages have been so easy to obtain that
Intending users OF land have had no diff
Guilty in buying freeholds. Individual
owners heretofore all but universally
engaged in active business have found IL
advantageous to retain control Of the full
capital value Of their land soa to be able
to sell at a moments notice. With the
growth Of a wealthy leisure class. how
ever, the practice OF letting building
sites Tor the sake OF stable incomes may
= be expected to become more general.
The practice will be facilitated by recent
changes in the corporation laws which
make IL 9inrla and nanGiua ma far
for the heirs OF a landed estate to parti-
ton the property in the form OF joint stock
shares. Thus the Rhinelander estate,
capitalized at SO 500. 600. is held by the
Rhinelander Real Estate Company II is
significant of social conditions that most
OF the big landed estates in New York
which make ground leases are institu-
tons. notably Trinity Church, the Sailors
the Dutch Reformed Church. Trinity
Church has an income of SIT, 900 a year.
largely from ground leases. The aggre-
gate land holdings OF the Astor family
or Of the Goelets are popularly believed
to equal those oETrinity Church, but these
holdings are divided among a number
OF branches of the two families.
The growing attractiveness Of stable
incomes is creating a demand for lease
holds on the part Of investors. Lease
marketable as are freeholds. A business
house which owns a leasehold has now
frequently as quick an asset as II il
owned a freehold. The one kind of
estate can be realized on as readily as
the other. However. when both are on
par as to stability the leasehold is
preferable as a sale to merchants because
II does not require a heavy investment
OF capital. Even the strongest Wholesale
or retail concern is handicapped when it
has to set aside a million from its active
capital to secure a site. The money can
be made to earn a great deal more in an
active mercantile business than II can
II invested in real estate. The Sloane
transaction, whatever the motive which
influenced its principals, Is typical of a
growing practice OF building on leasehold
sites in the most expensive thoroughfares
OF the midtown shopping centre.
Other suggestive Manhattan deals last
week we're the purchase Of the 81, ,25O, 900
Evans block OF twenty-six lots on the
West Side by Robert f. Dowling and
William H. chesebrough and the pur-
chase by the Dow Construction Company
OF site on Washington Heights for an
apartment hotel. The Evans block will
no doubt be resold In plots to builders Of
freproof apartment houses. The deal
because of its magnitude attracts atten-
tlon in a conspicuous manner TO a rising
building movement in a neighborhood
that is likely to undergo a considerable
transformation in the near future through
displacement of dwellings and fats by
expensive apartments.
On Washington Heights a twelve story
apartment hotel is a suggestive departure,
Broadway in that section is now pretty
well lined with six story elevator apart
ment houses. but the building which the
Dow Construction Company proposes 70
erect at Broadway and l45th street is the