FORTUNES IN FENCES.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XVII, Issue XIX, 7 November 1896, Page 26

FORTUNES IN FENCES.

There are fortunes in New York fences. The acreage of advertising space on blank fences and billboards in New York is said to be larger than the ground used as sites for all the churches or all the theatres in the city. If the miles of signs along New York’s bnsy thoroughfares could be spread out together they would completely cover the entire lower end of Manhattan Island from the Battery nearly to Fourteenthstreet. The rental of this perpendicular property is rather larger in the aggregate than that of many fair-sized villages throughout the country, says a New York exchange; and much of it comes higher by the square foot than real estate in the city limits of Brooklyn, Boston or Philadelphia. Advertising space commands a higher rental than any space used for similar purposes anywhere in the world. These remarkable signs have, however, a greatly exaggerated value in Gotham. Most advertising men agree that the rates charged are more or less fantastic. This is due to the fact that advertising in America is carried on on a much larger scale than any country in the world, and New York is the centre of snch interests. Soon after the demolition of the Metropolitan Hotel, at Broadway and Princestreet, it was learned that the representative of a very large bill-posting concern called on the agents for the property and asked the price of the privileges of erecting a fence thereon, the space being about 300 feet on Broadway by 200 on Prince-street. After some consideration the real estate man announced that £1,600 would about fill the bill, provided, of course, the advertising men put up their own fence. This was a trifle too high for the would-be lessees, and a compromise was finally effected for £I,OOO per annum. Another cheap little piece of advertising space marks the site of the old Herald building, at Broadway and Ann street. This only cost the advertising men £6OO a year, and they had to do a lot of arguing to get it at that price. The man who owns the property at Broadway and Thirtysixth street, was also enabled to rent his fence at an astonishing figure. The ninety feet of running space controlled does not bring bankruptcy by any means—only £2OO a year. Still another producer of unearned increment is a board partition at Broadway and Bleecker-street, comprising an area of 100 running feet. Any one wishing to outdo the present lessees for the privilege of decorating the same will have to pay the present rate of £3OO. A prominent advertising space owner said : * It is impossible to estimate either the amount of capital invested or the space occupied in the business of bill posting. Take one firm, for instance. The largest firm of bill-board advertisers controls 100,000 feet of fence alone, not counting blind walls and bill-boards Of these latter there are probably 10 000 in the city of a uniform size of 7 x 31 feet. These, how-

ever, ere devoted to theatrical posters, and, ofter their erection, cost practically nothing, complimentary tickets paying for the space they occupy in front of saloons, cigar stores and other prominent places. The capital tied up in the business is fully £3OO 000 at the lowest figure. * Who the greatest advertisers are depends upon the season of the year. In the winter the theatres do the greater part ; in spring the patent medicines and circus men ran neck and neck. Like the poor, the tobacco men and various “ food ” concerns are always with us.’