Included in the above items of rentals are rooms.which have been leased for the use of the Bridge and Water Supply Departments, the rent of which is paid by resolution of the Commissioners of the Sinking Fund by the said Departments out of their appropriations and not included in the general lease of this building, viz.:

In the present existing lease there is a clause which gives the City the right of renewal for a further period of five years. I find that a number of rooms included in the original lease have been given up and surrendered by the various departments and other rooms from time to time taken in lieu thereof, and the dates of expiration vary. I have had an interview with the representative of the Park Row Building Company, at which interview the question of the term of renewal of the lease was under consideration. He stated that the Park Row Realty Company desired a five years' renewal, and I told him that inasmuch as the City had leases expiring at various dates in this building, that in authorizing this lease the City should make it for a term which would make all leases expire April 1, 1905, and thereafter could be renewed for such a period as the owners of the building and the Commissioners of the Sinking Fund could agree upon. The Finance Department leases premises in the Stewart Building, the total rent of which exceeds the rent paid by the City in the Syndicate Building by 50 per cent. This lease is made for one year and renewed at the end of each period. The leases for the use of other departments in various buildings in the City and in the Borough of Brooklyn are made for a period of one year, and I do not see any reason why the owners of the Syndicate Building should demand this five years' lease, or the City, under the cases above recited, should comply with it.

My object for renewing this lease for one year is twofold: First, an adjustment of all the leases to secure uniformity; second, that each of the City Departments now occupying rooms in the building should, in the new budget to be passed upon by the Board of Estimate and Apportionment next autumn, include in the Departmental Budget an amount of money which would cover the rent that is now paid by the City in this building—that is to say, the Street Cleaning Department to include in their Budget the sum of $11,606.56 to cover the amount of rent now paid for the use of their rooms on the 14th floor, and the Water Supply Department, the City Record, the Department of Bridges and the President of the Borough, each should do likewise.

Recently the Water Department and the Bridge Department requested a lease of certain rooms in this building, and a recommendation made at that time was that the rent should be paid by the City Departments out of their own appropriations and not included in the general lease of the building. At the time this lease was approved by the Commissioners of the Sinking Fund for the Department of Water Supply, that Department had four rooms, Nos. 2023 to 2027, inclusive, which were vacant and not occupied or used by them. Had I the knowledge of this fact, which came to me through the agents of the owners of the building, I should not have approved of the lease for those rooms. The agents of the owners of the building in

formed me that they had sub-let these four rooms for the month of March, and with that knowledge, I notified the gentleman in charge of the leases in the Auditing Bureau not to pay the rent for these four rooms until an adjustment could be made.

I therefore respectfully recommend that the Commissioners of the Sinking Fund adopt a resolution authorizing a lease and renewals of leases for the different departments now housed in the Park Row Building, of the rooms and at the annual rental designated in the schedule hereinafter mentioned, for a period which will make a uniform expiration of all of the leases in this building, that is to say, April 1, 1905; the lessor, the Park Row Realty Company, to furnish light, heat, elevator and janitor's services. That the Comptroller be authorized to pay the rent for the use of the Rooms Nos. 1618 to 1621 and 1636 to 1639, inclusive, in this building, which lease expired April 1, 1904, occupied by the City Record for month of April, 1904.

I would further respectfully recommend that the head of each Department occupying rooms in said building be notified to incorporate in his budget for next year an amount of money sufficient to cover the expenditure for rent now paid for his Department in said building.

By the above arrangement in regards to renewals, all leases will expire April 1, 1905, at the end of which period a lease may be made for a length of time to be thereafter agreed upon.

Respectfully submitted for approval,

Approved:

MORTIMER J. BROWN,

Appraiser of Real Estate in Charge of Bureau.

EDWARD M. GROUT, Comptroller.

Resolved, That the Corporation Counsel be and is hereby requested to prepare leases to the City from the Park Row Realty Company, of the following rooms in the Park Row Building, Nos. 13 to 21 Park row, Borough of Manhattan, for the use of the Departments hereinafter mentioned, and on the terms and conditions therein set forth:

For the Supervisor of the City Record.

1. Rooms Nos. 801 to 806, inclusive, on the eighth floor, for a period of eleven months from May 1, 1904, at an annual rental of two thousand one hundred and twenty dollars ($2,120), payable quarterly; the lessors to furnish light, heat, elevator and janitor service.

For the Department of Bridges.

2. Rooms Nos. 1201 to 1224, inclusive, for a period of one year from April 1, 1904, at an annual rental of seven thousand seven hundred and eighty-two dollars and sixtyeight cents ($7,782.68), payable quarterly; the lessors to furnish light, heat, elevator and janitor service.

3. Rooms Nos. 1225 to 1227, inclusive, for a period of eleven months from May I, 1904, at a rental at the rate of six hundred and fifty-eight dollars and seventy cents ($658.70) per annum, payable quarterly; the lessors to furnish light, heat, elevator and janitor service.

4. Rooms Nos. 1228 to 1231, inclusive, and Nos. 1236 to 1239, inclusive, for a period of two months and eleven days from January 20, 1905, at a rental at the rate of two thousand three hundred and thirty-five dollars and thirty-five cents ($2,335-35) per annum, payable April 1, 1905; the lessors to furnish light, heat, elevator and janitor service.

For the Department of Street Cleaning.

5. Rooms Nos. 1401 to 1439, inclusive, on the fourteenth floor, for a period of one year from April 1, 1904, at an annual rental of eleven thousand six hundred and six dollars and fifty-six cents ($11,606.56), payable quarterly; the lessors to furnish light, heat, elevator and janitor service.

For the President of the Borough of Manhattan.

6. Rooms Nos. 1801 to 1814 and Nos. 1832 to 1839, all inclusive, on the eighteenth floor; Nos. 1701 to 1714 and 1736 to 1739, all inclusive, on the seventeenth floor; Nos.