At a regular meeting of the Board of Directors of the Fulton Market Fishmongers'
Association, held at its rooms October 2, 1901.

Present Samuel L. Storer, President in the chair, and the entire Board.

The following preamble and resolution were offered by Mr. Case, seconded by Mr. Keeney and unanimously adopted:

Whereas, By chapter 327 of the Laws of 1901, power was conferred upon the Commissioners of the Sinking Fund of The City of New York to renew the lease with this Association for a period of twenty-one years upon such terms and conditions as the Commissioners may fix and determine; and

Whereas, Such act provides for a surrender of the present lease as a condition of a new lease. Resolved, That Samuel L. Storer and George T. Moon are hereby appointed a committee to attend to the interests of this association in the matter of obtaining such new lease, and they are authorized to employ counsel and to take any necessary action to this end.

Attest :.

[SEAL.]

GEO. H. CASE, Secretary.

In connection therewith the Comptroller presented the following report of the Engineer of the Department of Finance : December 2, 1901.

Hon. BIRD S. COLER, Comptroller:

SIR-The Fulton Market Fishmongers' Association, represented by Ahel Crook as their counsel, have presented a petition, under date of October 23, 1901, to the Commissioners of the Sinking Fund, requesting that under the provisions of chapter 327, Laws of 1901, the Sinking Fund Commissioners grant to their corporation a lease for the easterly half of Pier, old 22, the westerly half of Pier, old 23, East river, for the whole length from South street, and the bulkhead between the said piers, for the period of 21 years from the termination of the present lease, May 1, 1905, or from such earlier date as the Commissioners of the Sinking Fund may deem proper, and that as a condition thereof the petitioners may surrender and the City accept the surrender of the existing lease of said property from the time when the new or extended lease shall take effect, and that the rental for such new or extended term may be fixed at a fair valuation; and the terms and conditions be agreed upon so that said association may be enabled to provide the proper facilities and improvements necessary to the fish trade of New York City and to secure if possible a sinking fund to reimburse or indemnify said association to some extent for its original expenditure for the market building and the improvements made by the petitioners.

The petition states that the association expended the following amounts from 1884 to 1900, inclusive, for and on account of the premises leased to them:

The petition also states that there was expended for the original plant amounts as follows:

For market building in 1869....

For bulkhead built by petitioners

Total

$115.500 00 5.170 45

$120,670 45

-on which sum of $120,670.45, interest at 6 per cent. for seventeen years will amount to $123,083.74, which added to their other expenditures as above stated aggregate the sum of $511,670.19 for the expenditures made by them for and on account of the premises leased by them from the City for and during the past seventeen years.

The association has created a Sinking Fund for the purpose of paying off their indebtedness as above stated, but the accumulations during the fourteen years of its incorporation in that fund amount only to the sum of $12,800, after payment of the interest on their capital stock to meet the expense of the erection of the market building; and, upon the recital of these facts, they ask that due consideration be given to them in fixing the terms and conditions of the lease asked for by the association, and that the same may be made upon a fair and reasonable basis.

It is also stated in the petition that the location of this market is the best possible site available for its purposes; that by carefully made tests it has been found that the waters in the slip occupied by them is well adapted for their use, being comparatively clear and pure, as the flow of the tide coming in through Buttermilk channel strikes this point and keeps the water in the slip fresh and free from sewage or other contamination, no such conditions being found in other locations on the water front in the Borough of Manhattan.

In regard to the petition as presented, I beg leave to report :

That the Fulton Market Fishmongers' Association is now in occupation of the premises described, being the easterly half of Pier, old 22, the westerly half of Pier, old 23, East river, for the whole length of said piers, from the southerly line of South street, the bulkhead between the piers and the slip within the lines of said piers, under a lease dated May 1, 1884, for the period of twenty-one years, from May 1, 1884, to May 1, 1905, at an annual rental of $12,000 per annum, payable quarterly in advance, the lessees being required to uphold and keep the said premises and every part thereof in repair, and to dredge the slip between the said piers and in front of the said bulkhead; all of the covenants in such lease appear to have been complied with by them up to the present time.

As the plan adopted by the Department of Docks and Ferries for the improvement of the water-front contemplates and provides for the widening of South street, making that street 125 feet wide instead of 70 feet as at present, and necessitates the removal of parts, if not all of the structures at present erected on the premises occupied by the Fishmongers Association, and as the prosecution of the work of this improvement will in the near future be commenced, which will involve considerable expense to the lessees, it seems to be not only fair but reasonable that consideration should be given to the claims of the petitioners to have an extension of their lease assured to them by the Commissioners of the Sinking Fund.

A fish market as large and commodious as it is possible to make it is one of the prime necessitics of the city, and the one now established and occupied by the present lessees of these premises appears to fill the requirements of the present time, it being centrally located and adjoining the Fulton Market, one of the oldest of the city markets. This fish market is now the centre of all the city trade in sea food products, and it would be difficult to select a location or found a market in any other place that is so well adapted for the purpose as the one now in use.

The volume of business transacted at this market is stated by the petitioners to be, as per extract from the report of the United States Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries for 1899, that during the year 1898 the fish handled and distributed in New York

Was...

Deducting for menhaden, clams, oysters and shells..

Leaving approximately.....

210,497,376 pounds 185,496,859

25,000,527

-as the amount of fresh food fish disposed of by the New York dealers at this market for the year, or nearly 500,coo pounds per week.

In addition to this amount large quantities of fish come to this market from the western lakes and other sources of supply and in order to properly take care of the constantly increasing supplies of fresh food fish and to provide the requisite cold storage or receptacles in which certain fish may be stored in periods of large supply and kept in good condition until required for consump tion, will necessitate the expenditure of large amounts of money in the erection and maintenance of proper market buildings to accommodate the growing business now carried on at this market. Under the provisions of chapter 327, Laws of 1901, which read as follows :

An Acr to amend chapter two hundred and seventy-seven of the laws of eighteen hundred and sixty-nine, entitled “An Act to incorporate the Fulton Market Fishmongers Association of The City of New York" relative to the renewal of its lease with The City of New York.

Accepted by the City.

Became a law April 11, 1901, with the approval of the Governor; passed, three-fifths being

present.

The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:

Section 1. Section three of chapter two hundred and seventy-seven of the laws of eighteen hundred and sixty-nine, entitled "An Act to incorporate the Fulton Market Fishmongers Association of The City of New York," as amended by chapter four hundred and twelve of the laws of eighteen hundred and eighty-three, is hereby amended to read as follows:

Sec. 3. The Commissioners of the Sinking Fund of the city of New York are hereby authorized in their discretion to lease to the said corporation the present fish market, including one-half of the piers adjoining the same on either side thereof for the whole distance in length, from the bulkhead of said slip and the land and waters of the said slip between the same, for a term not exceeding twenty-one years, for the purposes aforesaid, upon such terms and conditions as they shall deem most advantageous for the city, with the right and power to renew the same for the further term of twenty-one years, upon such terms and conditions as the said commissioners may fix and determine, and providing in such lease for the construction of such new building or alterations, additions and improvements to the present building for a fish market of iron or wood as they may deem advisable without delay; provided, nevertheless, that such lease shall be for the use of all persons now holding stands in the said fish market to the same extent that they now hold the same; and further provided that the said fish market shall be subject to the laws or ordinances and regulations of the corporation of New York relating to public markets not inconsistent with the purpose of this act; and further provided that such lease shall be accepted by the said corporation during the existence of or immediately upon the termination of the existing lease or leases of the said premises, which lease or leases said corporation is hereby authorized to surrender and the said commissioners of the sinking fund are hereby authorized to accept as a condition of such new lease.

Sec. 2. All acts or parts of acts, general or local, public or private, so far as they are inconsistent with the provisions of this act or might be construed to impair or limit its effect, are hereby repealed.

Sec. 3. This act shall take effect immediately.

-the Commissioners of the Sinking Fund are authorized in their discretion to lease the premises in question for a term not exceeding twenty-one years for a fish market, and with the right and power to renew the same for a further term of twenty-one years upon such terms and conditions as may be fixed and determined by the said Commissioners of the Sinking Fund.

This law clearly gives the right and power to grant a lease for the said premises to the petitioners for a term of twenty-one years, with the privilege of a renewal term thereof for an additional twenty-one years on such terms and conditions as may be deemed proper by the Commis

sioners of the Sinking Fund; and in view of the fact that the petitioners have in the past expended large sums of money in the construction of buildings, repairing, dredging and other expenses incidental to and required in the maintenance and management of this market, it seems to be only fair and reasonable that they should be assured of a continuance of their lease for a period long enough to warrant the expenditures which they must necessarily incur in new buildings and altering and changing their present structures in order to have the proposed widening of South street accomplished.

In view of all the facts stated, I would recommend that a lease be authorized by the Commissioners of the Sinking Fund to the Fulton Market Fishmongers Association for the term of twentyone years from the day of December, 1901, at an annual rental of $12,000, payable quarterly, in advance, otherwise on the same terms and conditions contained in the existing lease, and also subject, nevertheless, to the provisions contained in any existing law or ordinance heretofore passed and now in operation or which may hereafter be passed by the Legislature of the State of New York or by the Municipal Assembly or Common Council of The City of New York, which may be applicable to or affect in any manner the public markets of The City of New York; that the present lease for said premises be canceled on the execution of the new lease, and also that the new lease shall provide for a renewal of the same for an additional term of twenty-one years at such rental and upon such terms and conditions as the Commissioners of the Sinking Fund may deem proper and prescribe for such renewal, the lessees to make application for such renewal at least one year before the expiration of the term of the lease granted to the said Association.

Respectfully,

EUG. E. MCLEAN, Engineer.

Abel Crook, Esq., attorney for the Fulton Market Fishmonger's Association, addressed the Board in regard to the necessity for authorizing a renewal at this time, and on motion of the Mayor the matter was referred to the Comptroller and Corporation Counsel.

The following communication was received from the Armory Board relative to proposed armory building for the Second Naval Battalion, between Fifty-first and Fifty-second streets, First avenue and New York Bay, Borough of Brooklyn:

To the Honorable the Commissioners of the Sinking Fund:

NEW YORK, December 4, 1901.

GENTLEMEN-At a meeting of the Armory Board held November 19, 1901, the following was adopted:

66

Resolved, That the modified plans and estimate as submitted by the architects, Horgan & "Slattery, and approved by the committee, for the proposed armory building for the Second Naval "Battalion, be accepted and adopted, subject to such certain modifications by the committee, and that an appropriation of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars ($250,000) be and is hereby "made for the erection of the building; that the Secretary be directed to transmit this resolution "with the plans, as finally modified by the committee, to the Commissioners of the Sinking Fund, "with the request that they be approved and an issue of bonds for the purpose be authorized." The plans have now been modified and approved by the committee, and are herewith transmitted to you, in accordance with the above resolution.

Yours truly,

THOS. L. FEITNER, Secretary.