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Show I! Perfecting an Enlarged Business District in Salt Lake City By H. I. BOWLES I The recent report of the formation of a syndicate capitalized at $500,000 to handle real estate and building propositions in this city has been commented upon by real estate men as only the second step in the development of Salt Lake City as the industrial center of the intcrmountain country. fl The syndicate is known to be composed of capitalists from Salt Lake City, Los Angeles, Butte and other cities of the country lying between Denver and San Francisco, men who must have considered carefully the prospects of a fair return on the money invested in real fl estate and who must certainly have made a careful comparison of the future growth of this city and others of the West. It is a significant fact, also, that the gentlemen concerned in the deal have declared their intention of erecting many new buildings on properties along Third South street in a portion of the city but recently regarded as a part of the business section. It is a little more than two years since Samuel Newhousc declared his intention of erecting huge office buildings near Fourth South and Main street and in that period the business section has expanded from a rather congested section along Main street between South Temple and Second South, with a few buildings extending out on to State street and along West Temple, into a locality bounded in its entirety by the railroad depots on the West, South Temple on the north, Fifth South on the south and State street on the east, with many stores on the side streets extending east to Second East and as far south as Sixth South. fl All during the twenty or more months which have included this period of expansion, real estate dealers have been commenting upon the gradual spreading out of the city and have urged their customers to take advantage of the opportunity offered to purchase property at the then prevailing rates with the excellent prospect of selling after at a great advance. Optimistic as the claims have appeared in many instances, it is nevertheless the fact that many apparently level headed investors have purchased property in the different outlying localities, and there has been a steady movement on the part of builders to erect business structures in those sections where they said there would be the great-, great-, est advance in values. As a result, small business concerns have moved into the new localities, old residences have been tranformcd into store houses, new fronts have been built on many of the old structures and all at once there has grown up a new business section, 1 the streets bordered with stores with attractive windows and exhib- H iting all the car-marks of prosperous metropolitan thoroughfares. . When Mr. Newhousc made his purchase in the southern portion M' of Salt Lake City and proceeded to build a city there, many wiseacres shook their heads and wondered if the investment there could result profitably. A comparison of the condition in the section about Fourth South and especially about Third South today with the situation here a few months ago shows that what were then often regarded as wild speculations on the probability of advance in real estate values in that portion, of the city, have been more than realized. A real estate dealer commenting recently on the cl jed appear- H ancc of Third South with its big stores, theatres, ha dsome show windows and the stream of people passing and repassing all day long 1 when only a short time ago there were almost no stores and the use of the thoroughfare was confined to the people who wished to reach some other locality, said that real estate values had increased in that H vicinity more than 200 per cent. Property which sold little more H than a year ago for $600 is now hardly obtainable for three times that H amount. H These things, however, are commented upon especially as indi- H eating the advantage of investing in a city where property is increas- H ing in value as rapidly as it is here. That the values are to be made as permanent as possible, also, is indicated by the manner in which H new buildings are being erected and the way business men are taking possession of the new accommodations offered even before the new H buildings arc completed. The two Newhousc skyscrapers are hardly H ready for the interior finish, yet it is said that a large portion of the H available office space has been spoken for. The new Judge building H is practically full and the other new buildings in process of construc- H tion and under contemplation are already being let. H The situation is confined not alone to the south portion of the H city, it is the case everywhere in the business district. New business H structures erected for business firms on upper Main street have been H leased before the contracts for construction were placed. Leases have H been signed for long periods by investors wishing to run European H hotels in the upper stories, and it has been reported that a prominent H business concern has been offered a large bonus for the sale of its H lease in a new building now in a partially completed state on Main H street These things read in the newspaper reports as if there were a tremendous building boom going on here and investors might well exclaim that there was a slight tendency to inflate values. Such an I idea is immediately dispelled, however, by the attitude of the real estate people who talk of the quiet market and wish for greater activity ac-tivity in realty circles. They point out, to be sure, the great amount of building that has been done in Salt Lake City during the past year, call attention to the remarkable increase in the total value.of the building build-ing permits issued from the office of the building inspector, and remark re-mark on the evident prosperity of the city, but they tell also of the great necessity of new buildings to accommodate the new and enlarging enlarg-ing business of the city, of new homes to provide for the people who come here attracted by the accounts of fortunes to be made in real estate, and they say that there is not now and can not be a boom which will interfere with the prospects of excellent returns on investments. It is the apparent solid foundation of real estate conditions in Salt Lake City which is commented upon almost daily by the real i estate dealers and the continued large transactions which are carried on are pointed out as indicating the confidence of the large investors. The new realty syndicate has promised to erect several new buildings on Third South, and others in the near vicinity of the Newhouse structures. The changes contemplated cover the destruction of several sev-eral low buildings along Third South and the erection of new skyscrapers sky-scrapers in their place as well as the utilization for new business structures of large amounts of vacant ground in that vicinity and near Fourth South. This means, almost of necessity, the carrying out of many improvements im-provements already begun but as yet unfinished on account of lack f of confidence in the future and will also bring about extensile improvements im-provements in property which is now vacant or occupied only by structures unserviceable for business purposes. The carrying out of the second step in the enlargement of the business section of Salt Lake City by expansion to the south can almost be said to have been completed ; the third step, which will contemplate a completion of Use work already under consideration, "will be watched with interest not only by investors but the public generally. Just Out of College. Most of the slang expressions of the day come originally from the minds of our playwrights. George Ade, he of the "Fables in Slang" fame, has certainly been the genesis for a great portion of our slang dictionary. Here follow a few of the bright things heard in "Just Out of College." "Young man, have you ever done any work?" "Yes, at home, before be-fore I went to college, I used to pick cherries." xi "Young man, you are now passing through the darn fool period I of your life. I think you are on the level you don't know enough to I be anything else." "What do you think of Professor Bliss?" "I thinjnW'therm55t ladylike man I ever met." .. ''It's strange you never told me about your aunt." "No, I never talk about her. I never did talk about auntie ; that's why she left me all her money." j "Why did you marry him ?" "Oh, I don't know. I had a cat and it died. I was lonesome." The above seems to indicate that Ade has duplicated the success of 'The College Widow" in his more recent work, "Just Out of College." |
