The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-12-18
THE MAKING OF FORTUNES.

In every thriving city there are
chances for personal gain usually
somewhat in proportion to how rapid
ly the place is growing-provided 4
man be able to perceive what is going
on about him, and is able to make a
proper Interpretation of signs and ten
denotes. Every decennial census re-
veals a story of opportunities grasped
and opportunities lost-chances to in
vest, to acquire a home in location of
advancing values, to sell more of
whatever one has to sell, and in a
bette market. Topeka is no excep-
ton to this rule.
The opportunities in growing city
are usually matter of cause and eff
feet says a writer in Leslie's. 1t
wasn't luck, he points out, that led
a chain store concern to obtain a lease,
at a stupendous figure, on a small bit
of space at the south vest corner of
Euclid avenue and East Ninth street.
In CleveIand.>-They had figured it out
by scientific observation that that cor
ner was going to be a tremendously
busy one, as to the total amount of
traffic, and also that the traffic was
going to have exceptional buying pow
er. And last year the increase in bust
ness at that store was the greatest of
any of the 1900 or more which the
same company operates in the princi-
pal cities of the United States.
When it became evident that the
automobile was going to be a CONNER
cial success, and that several of the
pioneer makes were to be manufac-
tured in Detroit. one might almost
have guessed that that city would
have big boom.
Even the wisest of business heads
are sometimes slow to recognize what
is happening in a real estate way right
in their own immediate surroundings.
In the financial district Of New York
the Wall Street section-there was
much office space going begging two
or three years ago. Plenty of the
more desirable offices could be rented
for $3.50 square foot. Then when
the war ended, shipping concerns, ma
rine insurance companies, and all
manner of business enterprises having
to do with international trade, desired
So great was the pressure for space
that rents jumped from So and $3.50
a square foot to as much as So foot.
Here certainly was a big opportu
nifty to have made vast fortunes by
specializing in leaseho1ds. And yet as
tonishingly few Wall Street men-tho
right on the scene, and trained in the
art Of seeing speculative opportunity
took advantage of the situation.
Fortunes are made in growing cities
by people who own valuable real estate.
who just happened to own it and kept
it because they did not know what
else to do with it. Usually it is the
outsider rather than the native who is
first to observe what a towns popula-
ton is doing and how it can be turned
to profit. The person who is part of
the population is too close up to get
good perspective.
For example, in Rochester, N. Y,
while ago, the representative of a big
retail concern came along and rented
a small corner space at a price that
shocked the owners of real estate in
that locality. The moment the deal
had been closed. several local store
proprietors wished they had taken the
space even at the unheard-of price.
They began to realize it's great desir
ability. Rents on similar business
property suddenly leaped upward and
there was a real estate revolution in
that section.