Interesting sign along the River Line (West Shore)

While trying to locate old New York Central Railroad stations on the River Line (West Shore) in Rockland County, New York and Bergen County, New Jersey this past weekend, we found an interesting sign while crossing the railroad at the grade crossing at Broadway in West Norwood, New Jersey. It indicated property for sale, Penn Central Real Estate Company, 466 Lexington Avenue, New York, NY. We took a photo of the sign and as soon as we get it developed, it will be posted. Interestingly, the sign looked relatively new, considering Penn Central hasn't existed for 20 years and 466 Lexington Avenue is also long gone. I'm going to post this on the New York Central discussion board and the CSX discussion board.

Actually.... yes the do... I think they are into Insurance.... or is that former IC?? Now, Whitman's...... anyway, yes they do, in some from, got outta the rail business.

It's an old sign. I saw them quite frequently around the area after Conrail took the rail assets and left PC with valuable surrounding properties.

PC became American Premier Underwriters, was merged with Great American in 1990s.

Here:http://www.greatamericaninsurance.com/p ... istory.jsp

Thanks LCJ for clearing that up.....

Penn Central Corporation existed for years after 1976- it owned much real estate and was also involved in legal cases stemming from the railroad merger disaster (one of my high school teachers showed me his dividend check that he got from PCC from the former NYC stock he inherited from his dad). Once all properties were liquidated and all cases were settled, PCC became American Premiere Underwriters, Inc. APUI was acquired by American General insurance...

Great American corporate history wrote:Today, Great American Insurance Group, owned by American Financial Group (NYSE/NASDAQ:AFG), is engaged primarily in specialty property and casualty insurance businesses and in the sale of retirement annuities, life and supplemental health insurance products. The Carl Lindner family remains a significant holder of AFG's common stock.

Carl Lindner of Cincinnati was one of the largest shareholders of PC and then APU. Great American Insurance Group (majority owned by AFG) holds the bulk of the remaining non-railroad assets of Penn Central, I believe.

PC/APU had some extremely valuable real estate assets in Manhattan and other areas near and contiguous to PC rail lines.

I wasn't aware that PC paid any dividends to original NYC shareholders post bankruptcy. I'm not saying they didn't -- I just was not aware of it. Perhaps it was a mortgage bond, such the one here from 1978 that says, "7% Due 1987" on its face.
PC Bond For Sale Here

LCJ wrote:I wasn't aware that PC paid any dividends to original NYC shareholders post bankruptcy.

PC, CNJ, MILW, RI, all reoganized and changed names. I don't know if the old stockholders got anything. I don't know what happened to L&HR and AA. I don't know the details of what happened with NYS&W and D&H, but suspect that the stockholders got nothing. I know that NH&I stockholders got nothing. E-L liquidated very well and the stockholders got some of the money. Reading Co. came out of bankruptcy and the old stockholders still have their stock, especially the guys who bought more than 4,000,000 shares from N&W in 1974 for about 10 cents each!

Common shares are almost always last in line in these situations. Bondholders usually fare the best, since they have a mortgage lien on the assets (fixed rate of return = lower risk). Shareholders have largely worthless paper when all is said and done.

UpperHarlemLine4ever wrote:......Interestingly, the sign looked relatively new, considering Penn Central hasn't existed for 20 years.......

Oh the passage of time, how it bites us in the tail...... Forget twenty years, we're coming up on THIRTY YEARS since we heard the death gasp from that nightmare.

Scary, isn't it?

So, is that property still for sale then?

Dieter.

The same original post was also listed in the New Jersey and NYC forums. The sign is relatively new, that parcel is still for sale. Come on, this is New Jersey... there might not be any holes in the sign from firearms, but there's no way that sign would look pristine that long!

Now you know that sign won't be around for long!

Dieter/

I recall seeing those signs at that very location over twenty years ago, in the early 1980s. Guess the land in question is not in high demand. Maybe it's contaminated -- toxic sites seem to be the only thing that lingers on the market that long in Bergen County.

Pete wrote:I recall seeing those signs at that very location over twenty years ago, in the early 1980s. Guess the land in question is not in high demand. Maybe it's contaminated -- toxic sites seem to be the only thing that lingers on the market that long in Bergen County.

The land in question, less than a mile from my house, is in a residential neighborhood and under sized. It would need a varience to build a house there and who would want to live 50 feet from the tracks?

At the Broadway crossing in Northvale...

http://high-iron-photograph.rrpicturear ... ?id=326382

That's the baby, but it's Norwood, Northvale's up the road about a mile or so.