Square Feet

One day apart last week two plans were revealed for major new developments in Manhattan's financial district. First and most spectacular of the announcements was that Louis Adler, onetime dressmaker, now independent real estate operator and builder, had succeeded in assembling an entire square block in the Wall Street district. Although 23 minutes after the last plot had been bought Mr. Adler could have sold at a profit, he is going ahead with plans for a 105-story office building.

The other project is for a building, probably at, least 63 stories high, on the plot adjacent to Mr. Adler's. It will be built for Henry L. Doherty & Co. as the first unit of a chain of skyscrapers. Unique features will include five entrances, escalators for the first seven floors, double-decked elevators of which the upper compartments will stop at odd floors, lower compartments at even ones.

Because of such projects real estate values in Manhattan fluctuate violently. Mr. Adler's block is now valued at $10,000,000 or over $300 per sq. ft. A few blocks away, at Wall St. and Broadway, a square foot is worth $600, while some plots in the district run to $800. No 1 Broadway is worth $200 per sq. ft., Broadway at 42nd $400, 42nd and Fifth Ave. $500. The land where the Chrysler Building stands is set at $250, while across Lexington Ave. the Hotel Commodore's real estate is estimated to be worth $300. The shopping district at Fifth Ave. and 57th St. commands $350, the less fashionable region of Fifth Ave. at 34th, $200 on the west side, a little more on the east.

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