1987: Downtown rents near Midtown levels
Average asking rents in Downtown office buildings, which had historically lagged behind those of Midtown properties, came to within a few dollars of their Midtown counterparts for the first time in years, a report from August 1987 showed.
The asking prices in Downtown buildings in the second quarter of 1987 were $34.59 per square foot, 13 percent below the $39.85 a foot average in Midtown office towers. Seven years earlier, the average Downtown rent was $15.79 a foot, just half of Midtown’s average of $32.83.
Executives at brokerage firm Edward S. Gordon Company, which conducted the survey, said a rising stock market and strong economy led to a construction boom Downtown, where new buildings with more amenities were commanding higher rent. ”I have never seen the rates between Midtown and Downtown this close,” Henry Gallin, a senior executive vice president of the firm, told the New York Times.
The relative increase in Downtown prices did not hold. In June of 2000, Midtown rents were $54.44 per foot, and in Downtown were just over $40 a foot. After Sept. 11, the rush to Midtown pushed rents higher in that zone.
This June, a report from brokerage CB Richard Ellis showed average Downtown rents were 42 percent lower than Midtown, at $49.53 a foot compared with $86.57 a foot.
1955: Removal of Third Avenue El begins
The removal of the elevated IRT train along Third Avenue began 53 years ago this month, sparking a rise in real estate values after the noisy steel structure came down. With the development of underground subways in the city, the elevated line, which began in South Ferry and continued up the Bowery and Third Avenue to Harlem, grew to be seen as an outdated and unsightly blight on the neighborhoods it passed through.
Land values rose sharply in the two years before demolition began, especially along the avenue’s Midtown stretch where office towers were planned, the New York Times reported. In the ’40s and ’50s, for example, prices rose from about $30 per square foot to $60 per square foot by 1955.
New, larger and more luxurious apartment buildings replaced earlier structures, pushing up land values in neighborhoods such as Yorkville.
By 1962, land values on parcels along Third Avenue had risen tenfold since 1944, and nearly 30 apartment buildings were completed or under construction between 14th and 40th streets since the railway was completely torn down in 1956.
1930: Spike in building demolitions
Building demolitions hit their highest level in decades as nearly 3,000 structures were razed or slated for destruction in the first eight months of 1930, according to a survey from August of that year.
Some 2,863 buildings were expected to or had already been taken down during that time, often for public works projects, said Allen Beals of the Dow Service Daily Building Reports.
The number of demolitions was far higher than in the years
between 1913 and 1922, when 5,736 structures were demolished, an average of 637 per year. “Street widenings, subways, parks and playgrounds are taking an increasing toll each year on outworn housing to make way for wider streets, recreation space and many other improvements,” Beals told the New York Times.
There were 365 buildings torn down to widen Chrystie and Forsyth streets on the Lower East Side, and 625 structures were slated to be wrecked for the West Side freight terminal, including 219 apartment buildings. Between 81st and 82nd streets on the Upper East Side, 240 buildings mostly used as rentals were leveled for a large development. On the East River between 52nd and 53rd streets, demolition of buildings was nearing completion in August 1930, to make way for the 26-floor River House cooperative that opened the following year.
The number of demolitions in recent times has outstripped those of 1930, mostly for new home development. In 2002, there were 3,386 demolition permits. That figure rose during the recent boom to 5,582 last year, according to the Department of Buildings.