New-York tribune., 1920-05-02
Manhattan Apartment Tenants Pay $10O00,O0O to
Landlords to Secure Their Homes and Control Rent

Hundreds of tenants have become
owners Of apartment houses on the
cooperative plan In Manhattan and in
the Bronx in tho last six weeks. valued
at almost $1O,0O0,O0O. Some Of the
buildings sold are among the largest
Of their kind in the city, in Riverside
Drive, Park. Fifth and West End ave-
nues and other fine locations.
Buying under this plan in many
cases has been done to protect the ten
ant against changing landlords and
rent advances and for the assurance
of permanent homes. In some cases
tenants have been forced into buying
to protect their homes from other fiat
seekers who have been ready to 20 into
cooperative schemes advanced by
speculative owners. Others have been
compelled to find homes elsewhere
when, having failed to subscribe for
the apartment occupied, it has been
sold over their heads. Cooperative
apartment homes have been feature
Of New York housing for many years,
but "buying" Of old apartments is
novelty that has grown out Of the
Sold Under New Rent Schedule
Most of the houses have been sold
under the new rent schedule, ranging
from $40 to $50 room month In the
larger houses. Subscribers to the plan
take stock in the syndicate formed to
take title to the property to the value
OF from five to seven times the amount
of their annual rental, thereby getting
a promise Of rent free thereafter, the
amount for interest on the mortgages
on the property, taxes, insurance, op-
Grafton and maintenance of the build
ing being collected in rentals from
other tenants in the apartment who
are not stockholders.
The passing of the rent profiteerin@
laws, it was believed by many. would
be followed by a noticeable falling off
in cooperative apartment buying, which
became quite active a few weeks before
the laws went into effect, but more
notable sales have been reported on
this plan in the last several days.
Sentimertality has shared in this CO.
operative buying by persons occupying
suites, and many tenants have become
stockholders rather than find other
homes.
Chief interest in last weeks buying on
the cooperative plan centered in the re-
sale of the eleven-story Knickerbocker,
one of the oldest apartments in the city,
at the southwest corner of Fifth Avenue
and Twenty-eighth Street Among the
buyers are former Justice George l..
lngraham, Charles S. Bracket, president
Of the Mutual Bank; B. T. Fairchild and
John V. Bouvier. The seller has been
asking $1,000,000 for the property.
because of another purchase last
week, twelve tenants who live in the two
siN-story apartments st 316 and 318
West Eighty-fourth Street will be COM
PEELED to find homes elsewhere when
their leases expire in October, for the
houses have been bought by twelve per-
sons living elsewhere who are to move
into the apartments. The house con-
tains twenty-four apartments of eight
rooms each. The buildings were pur-
chased with the idea of maintaining
creased rentals for the other tenants
sufficient to cover carrying charges and
amortization of mortgages.
The latest Of the large Park Avenue
apartment houses to be taken over on
the cooperative plan is the twelve and
one-half story house at 823 Park Ave
nue., adjoining the northeast corner of
Seventyffth Street, by syndicate
composed equally of some present ten
ants and outside stockholders, who will
occupy apartments at the expiration of
leases.
In the twelve-story apartment at
the northwest corner of Park Avenue
and Seventy y-seventh Street, the first of
two large houses in this thoroughfare
sold under the cooperative plan, rents
will advance from $175,OOO to about
S2b0,000. 1t was sold by Max N. Nat
anson to the Park Avenue and Seventy
seventh Street Company, composed of
A. E. Outerbridge, J. II. Jones'. George
Richards, M. W. Dabell and H. F. Mol
ler. tenants. Pease & Gilman were
the brokers.
Tall West End Avenue House Sold
Mr.. Natanson also sold to tenants
the twelve-story apartment at the
southeast corner of West End Avenue
and Eightysixth Street. It was
erected about six years ago by Mulliken
& Moeller and contains twenty-five
suites of eight and ten rooms It was
purchased by the syndicate of tenants
for $875,O0O, who paid an amount equal
ing four years rental. Under the new
rent schedule rooms rent for $50 each
a month.
Tenants Of the ten-story vauxhall,
at the northeast corner Of Riverside
Drive and 155th Street, have incor-
porated with capital stock of $3.50 900
to take over the structure for s725,OOO.
There is first mortgage on the prop
erty Of $460000 and second of $170.-
600. Rents which are now $25 a room
q month will be advanced to $40 room
In October.
The three nine-story apartment, at
l15 and 1913 East Fifty-third Street and
lib East Fifty-fourth Street, in the
rear, in the Park Avenue section. Of
from five to ten rooms, have been ac-
CURED by tenants for q payment of
seven times the annual rental Of their
suites. Rents under the new scheduie