Hudson & Manhattan Railroad Company
 

1948 Annual Report
 

Exchange Place. Nevertheless, on July 7, 1948,
the Commission, with two members dissenting,
rejected the examiner's report and refused to
change the existing divisions. It held that the
Increased share recommended for the Company
by the examiner would result in a return to the
Pennsylvania on its Investment in the joint
service "lower than the circumstances warrant",
that the benefits to the Pennsylvania from its
use of the Company's facilities are "largely, if
not entirely, offset by the benefits flowing to the
Company from the same operations", and that
 

it would not assume the financial need of the
Company to be any greater than that of the
Pennsylvania. On September 15, 1948 the Com¬
pany petitioned for reconsideration of the Com¬
mission's decision and this petition was denied
without any written opinion on January 3, 1949.
Counsel for the Company are reviewing the
entire record of the case with a view to filing a
further petition for relief. Consideration is also
being given to a possible petition for an increase
in the joint service fares themselves as distinct
from the Company's division thereof.
 

Real Estate
 

Leases representative of about 26.9% of the
entire rent roll of the Hudson Terminal Build¬
ings, their extensions, and certain miscellaneous
store properties owned by the Company expired
in 1948. By negotiation and arbitration in
accordance with local laws permitting rent in¬
creases, the rentals from the renewals of such
leases have been increased at the annual rate of
$231,000, or 36%. In addition, new rentable
areas have been found or developed which
heretofore had brought no rental income to the
Company, the aggregate annual rental from
which amounts to $24,000. The rent roll on an
annual basis, therefore, was increased by
$255,000 during the calendar year; it has con¬
tinued to increase by another $84,228 since Jan¬
uary 1, 1949. The management continues to
seek means for achieving further substantial
increases.

Recent months have shown a slight lessening
in the demand for office space, not only in our
 

buildings but in other downtown office buildings.
Nevertheless, at this writing the Hudson Ter¬
minal Buildings are 99.6% rented, only 3,222
square feet of area being available for rent.

Under prior management during the depres¬
sion of the '30's and through the time of World
W^ar II the Company's realty was poorly man¬
aged and brought far less rental than it should
have. The Institution of rent controls during
the War made the correction of this situation a
difficult and slow process. However, all of the
Company's tenants are now paying at least the
15% emergency rental increase permitted by the
New York State Rent Control laws, and the
Company has availed itself of provisions in the
law permitting Increases over and above the
15% by agreement or by arbitration. The
following schedule will illustrate the success of
the Company's recent endeavors to increase
revenues and net income from the Terminal
Buildings:
 

Year

1939.
1940.
1941,
1942.
1943.
1944.
1945.
1946.
1947..
1948.,
 


 


 

Perceiiiagr
Increase Over
 


 

Percentage
Increase Over
 

Gross Revenue
 

Year 1939
 

Net Income
 

Year 1939
 

51,600,921.63
 

—
 

£377,367,03
 

—
 

1
 

608,596.75
 

-5%
 

349,616,89
 

—  '■-4%
 

1
 

711,143.15
 

6.9
 

413,015,51
 

9.4
 

1
 

837,558.62
 

14.8
 

517,955,88
 

37.3
 

1
 

862,796.42
 

16.4
 

454,118,60
 

20.3
 

1
 

958.176.08
 

22,3
 

425,211.10
 

12.7
 

2
 

059,169.49
 

28,6
 

546,081.91
 

44.7
 

2
 

171,097.80
 

35.6
 

549,461.73
 

45.6
 

2
 

278,852.19
 

42,3
 

644,109.27
 

70.7
 

2
 

409,574.13
 

50.5
 

723,914.39
 

91.8