New York's Cooperative and Condominium Community

Habitat Magazine Insider Guide

HABITAT

MANHATTAN VALLEY

Boards scramble to cover loss of income from commercial tenants.

Co-op boards have presidents. Usually. But sometimes they have a queen, who takes property by royal fiat and ensconces her heir, the prince.

Such was the case at 4 W. 105th Street, just off Central Park West in Manhattan Valley — a neighborhood that changed dramatically from gang-ridden to high-biddin' in the timeframe involved. Not that this six-story, 35-unit building, completed around 1900, has itself changed that much. Then and now, it's a co-op in the nonprofit Housing Development Fund Corporation (HDFC) program, created to provide affordable housing for low- and middle-income individuals. Yet until this past December, apartment 4A has stood outside the program — populated by missing individuals, people with aliases and even the queen herself when she illegally sublet her own apartment down the hall.

When breakdowns are a regular event and patchwork is no longer cost-efficient, it may be time to upgrade your elevators.

That was the thinking by the board of managers running the three high-rises that comprise Towers on the Park condominium association at 301 Cathedral Parkway in South Harlem and 300 Cathedral Parkway and 220 Manhattan Avenue in Manhattan Valley. “It was 25 years, and the elevators’ long work life had come to an end,” says Jane Reynolds, one of the nine residents who sit on the board.

Recent news affecting co-op / condo buyers, sellers, boards and residents. This week, following the Independence Day holiday, we look at neighborhoods on the rise in Brooklyn, Queens and Manhattan. Plus, an expert tells you about refinancing your co-op — and, for boards, another explains all about financing your super's apartment. And two TV / film notables sell their places: the late Celeste Holm's Central Park West abode gets bought, and The Simpsons' Hank Azaria, the voice of Apu, Moe, Chief Wiggum, Comic Book Guy and more puts his Soho condo — Cindy Sherman's old place! — up for sale.

Ask the Experts

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Learn all the basics of NYC co-op and condo management, with straight talk from heavy hitters in the field of co-op or condo apartments

Professionals in some of the key fields of co-op and condo board governance and building management answer common questions in their areas of expertise

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