Mark Hankin
Partner, Hankin & Mazel

A long checklist. When you’re dealing with new construction next door, there are a lot more things to negotiate in a license agreement as opposed to a building that is just doing repairs. There is the issue of demolition of the base. There is the issue of underpinning, or reinforcing the foundation, which has to be done for your building. There are monitors for sound and movement that should be placed on your building, because if it’s moving as a result of work being done next door that could lead to a catastrophe.

Keep an eye out for ripple effects. We require monitoring on all new construction, and if there is movement by a certain percentage, the work has to stop. The Department of Buildings is called in and engineers have to get involved, and construction plans may have to be changed to make sure that the movement doesn’t happen again.

Make sure you’re covered. Some of these new buildings can go 45 stories high, and if yours is only 20 stories high, the protections for your roof and the rest of your building are a lot different. So we require substantial insurance, significant security for repairs, and an escrow where money is placed into our client’s account to pay for any damage that occurs during construction.