LEGAL/FINANCIAL

Construction at the megatower on Billionaires' Row may almost be finished, but it has stopped for the third time in less than a year. According to the Daily News, the Department of Buildings (DOB) halted construction at One57 after "a four by four-foot piece of Plexiglass fell from the 22nd floor of a glitzy new tower at 157 W. 57th St., crashing onto two parked cars." Yikes! The Wall Street Journal, which originally reported the story, adds that "Extell Development can’t resume building until it shows it can carry out the job safely." Luckily, nobody was hurt, but after three incidents, people are getting increasingly anxious about walking anywhere near the building. You can't blame them, either. Even if it had been a single incident, falling glass from a building, especially one that tall, is pretty scary indeed. 

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Bank statements, Social Security numbers, birth dates. Are they secure? And if they are not, are you protected?

It's time to talk about cyber insurance.

"One of the big misconceptions in real estate is that because they aren't a retail store conducting online transactions, [co-ops and condos] don't have cyber exposure. But if they store personal information, they have exposure," says Jim O'Neill of the New Empire Group, a company that offers cyber insurance for co-ops, condos, and property managers. If that data lands in the wrong hands, the co-op has liability that can cost the building thousands of dollars in legal fees and/or settlement costs.

As a result, building associations and property managers are picking up cyber insurance, since any company that keeps personal information is responsible for protecting that data. Breaches are costly and not covered under traditional protections, such as Directors & Officers liability or crime insurance.

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The idea of heading to the local watering hole to unwind after a long day or an even longer week certainly has its appeal for many. But it's one thing to go to a bar, and quite another to live anywhere near one. Trust us, some of us know. Take Wednesday, for example, typically a work night for the 9-to-5 set. It's 11 p.m. and you're ready to tuck in for the night because you have to be up at 6 in the morning. Except that it's karaoke night at the bar across the street, that one guy is singing "Ice Ice Baby" for the millionth time, and the revolving door of smokers talking and laughing without a care in the world will carry on until 3 a.m. or so. A group of residents who live along the perimeter of Seward Park, who are reportedly part of the SPaCE block association, know all about living near bars. They live near three of them. Three bars located within two blocks. A proposal for a fourth establishment, a Mexican restaurant with a full liquor license and a 4 a.m. closing time, reports Bowery Boogie, has fueled the group to launch a grassroots campaign to stop it from opening. "Flyers were littered around the vicinity this weekend ahead of tonight’s Community Board 3 meeting of the SLA subcommittee. The message is simple — no more bars for Essex Street." This is why when you live near a bar it's a good idea to invest in a white noise machine.

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Josh Fox has been on the board of the 206-unit condominium at 340 East 23rd Street for the entire seven-year life of the building, and president for the last three. In that time, he has proven himself a certain kind of board member, one who is more than a board member. He acts more like manager — a take-charge guy who has obsessively turned the idea of money-saving into an art form. Among his accomplishments: he has negotiated lower utility rates with the gas and electric companies; found a different bank to lower banking fees and interest rates; found a new landscaping company at a reduced cost; reupholstered outdated building furniture to avoid replacement costs; started e-mailing building documents to board members instead of printing them; and has instituted a dozen other practices intended to decrease costs and/or increase revenues. Such actions shouldn't be surprising, either: Fox is the founder and CEO of a company called Bottom Line, which analyzes nonprofit corporations and municipalities and helps them control their costs.

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A READER ASKS: I'm a doorman in a midsize co-op in Yonkers. I read your article about how boards can back up the concierge when a building resident puts him in an awkward position about the building rules. I really identified with it, especially because we have one of those building carts that building residents can use to take packages and groceries up to their apartments. That's what my problem is about. We only have one cart, and some people will take it and then not return it. Others wheel it back into the elevator and leave it in there, but don't call me at the desk to let me know so I can grab it and put it away — which can be annoying to anyone else using the elevator. When the cart goes missing and someone else needs it, I have to scramble to track it down while apologizing to the frustrated tenant. What can I do to improve this process and prevent the cart from vanishing? How can I get the residents to cooperate? 

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You might say it was fun while it lasted. The luxury market was on fire, and developers were testing those one percent waters to see how high prices could climb. As 2014 drew to a close, however, experts warned that the bubble would burst and a slowdown would begin. Sure enough, old man winter did manage to slow everything down. And now, as the Daily News reports, it looks like developers are getting "real about real-estate prices." That's right. Developers are slashing prices by as much as 25 percent. That sure sounds like a lot, but of course when you're not a gazillionaire, there simply isn't much difference between $40 million and $29.95 million or between $110 million and $82 million. It's interesting to see, however, that even the super rich, who arguably according to many have money to burn, can spot when something is overpriced. You can't blame the developers for trying their luck, though. The Daily News calls it "the real-estate equivalent of throwing everything against the wall and seeing what sticks" and quotes one developer as saying, "at the beginning of the sales process, you have nothing to lose when you list your penthouse at a pie-in-the-sky price." You never know when someone rich enough is going to bite.

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Who doesn't like a good story? Especially when it's a juicy bit of gossip about an author, a former celebrity, a famous photographer, or the man who founded Random House. Well, it looks like luxury property owners and their brokers have noticed, and according to the Daily News, they are doing some homework and learning about "the fascinating — and sometimes salacious — histories of their listings in an effort to catch attention in a competitive market." Brokers told the Daily News that while "factoids [about who's lived there or filmed a well-known movie there] didn't make the properties any more attractive to live in, but they increased attention to the listings, differentiating them from other buildings of the same ilk." And brokers aren't targeting only the starstruck, either. There's some fodder, too, for literati who still make it a point of walking along 44th Street to catch a glimpse of the bronze plaque in the front of the Algonquin Hotel bearing the names of its Round Table elite, which includes writer, wit, and satirist Dorothy Parker. Take, for example, the "140-year-old brownstone at 132 E. 62nd St. with a rich literary history. It turns out that Random House co-founder Bennett Cerf and his wife, actress turned "Dr. Seuss" editor Phyllis Fraser Cerf, bought the property from the Barnes family — of Barnes & Noble fame — for just $20,000 in 1941. After that, the couple hosted a who's who of New York scholars and celebrities, including William Faulkner [and] Truman Capote." Depending on the history, not to mention the tastes of potential buyers, this could make selling a learning experience on both sides. It's nice to get to really know the city. But of course, the technique will hardly be compelling if we're talking about someone who dated the assistant of some photographer who ended up marrying a person who wrote some self-help books a decade ago. 

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The weather is warmer and the street corners are mostly clear of Olympic-size slush pools that made walking around a major drag. Spotted near north Yonkers this week was a small crowd of people around the telltale open house sign. It has begun. And once spring is underway, reports DNAinfo, "buyers should brace for crowded open houses." StreetEasy compiled stats for DNAinfo that found, not surprisingly, that things get quietest in the winter months. Who wants to go out in weather like we had? And, from the seller's point of view, who wants a bunch of people trudging around their apartments in wet snow boots? So if you're looking and you've been underwhelmed by the options, take heart. More people will be putting their homes on the market as the weather improves and spring promises to be a busy season indeed. 

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Temperatures are finally starting to climb, and we're thawing out at last. Condo owners and co-op shareholders with terraces may be getting ready to dust off their barbecue grills. Now is a good time for boards to review their policies on grilling, so they can keep all building residents up to speed on the rules. Some condos and co-ops prohibit grilling on the terrace, while others allow it with a few caveats – and let's face it, it may be disruptive to neighbors above, below, and next door. Regardless of where your building stands, however, it's still in a board's interests to remind building residents that they must firstly, comply with the building's rules, and secondly, comply with the safety standards outlined in the NYC Fuel Gas Code and NYC Fire Code. 

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If you think being a concierge is easy, think again. The concierge is the gatekeeper, and depending on the building, a wearer of many hats. He is tasked with keeping the property and its residents safe, by greeting, announcing, and directing visitors to their destinations — and preventing unauthorized persons from gaining access to any of the apartments or common areas. He has to sign for and store packages and dry cleaning for the residents, and let them know when their fast-food delivery orders arrive. He is a juggler of sorts who has to find that perfect balance between following the board's orders and keeping the residents happy.

You'd think that wouldn't be such a difficult task, but sometimes the guardian of the gates may end up feeling like he's stuck in the middle of his duties and a unit-owner's wishes. That was the case for one concierge, whom we'll call John Smith, who formerly worked in a medium-size condo in Westchester.

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