NEW YORK CITY

Commercial space — the final frontier. Now that the infamous "80/20" rule has been relaxed, co-ops don't need to keep commercial-space rents artificially low, below 20 percent of a co-op's total income. With many long-term leases signed during the co-op conversion boom of three decades ago ending, boards are starting to realize they're sitting on gold.

Or are they?

It's no secret that with New York co-ops, market-rate rents for ground-level storefronts are high. Specific numbers are hard to cite, since commercial-rent studies lump together residential retail space with office-building retail and office space. But Adelaide Polsinelli, a principal and senior management director for Eastern Consolidated, says storefront rents in places like Manhattan's SoHo district "have tripled in two years," although she and others warn that market rates vary by neighborhood.

A READER ASKS: I am the new board president in a midsize co-op in Queens. It's my first time serving on a board, let alone as president. The building is very old and it looks like we will have our hands full figuring out what needs fixing and upgrading. One issue that I find especially disconcerting is that the previous board wasn't really on top of documenting things. I've been going through stacks of old paperwork. The building got a letter from the Department of Environmental Protection a few years ago stating that we needed to get a backflow prevention device. But there's no documentation that we did anything about it. There have been a lot of changes in the building, so contacting the previous board is not really an option. Is there an easy way to find out if we are in compliance? Am I worrying about nothing? 

Remember SimCity? It's an open-ended city-building computer and console video game series originally designed by developer Will Wright. If games — albeit the nerdier variety — are your cup of tea, then you could easily lose hours and hours developing land. Well, how about a web-based game that lets you plan affordable housing in New York City? It's a bit more niche than SimCity, but if you play "Inside the Rent," you'll be setting up "a sustainable first-year rent for two-bedroom apartments in a hypothetical building by adjusting expense variables," according to DNAinfo. Created by Citizens Housing Planning Council, a New York City nonprofit research and education organization, with help from the cartography firm VanDam Media, the game reportedly pulls numbers from real housing scenarios in Morrisania, Stapleton, Jamaica, Mott Haven, East New York, Bushwick, Bed-Stuy, East Harlem, Harlem, Astoria, Long Island City, Downtown Brooklyn, Williamsburg, and the Lower East Side. You select a neighborhood and then a target rent, and adjust factors that include building size, amenities, and construction and maintenance labor costs. Just like SimCity will throw earthquakes, fires, and other disasters at you to see how you and your simulated city cope, Inside the Rent has players seeking government subsidies for land and construction costs, as well as property tax abatements in an effort to keep rents within target. It's not easy! And as DNAinfo points out, it's "arguably the major takeaway from the game: building affordable housing is not easy." It sounds pretty cool. Wonder if Mayor Bill de Blasio already has it…

Photo from Citizens Housing Planning Council

What would you do if your building didn't have enough money to pay its mortgage, payroll, fuel bill, or any other major expense?

You'd have little choice but to file for bankruptcy — and all your shareholders or unit-owners would lose their investments. But you can prevent this frightening outcome by understanding your building's income stream and how to protect it.

It's no secret that some co-op boards tend to have bad reputations — too nosey, too bossy, too draconian. Certainly, sometimes boards do have a tendency to go too far. In recent weeks, for example, one board made headlines for asking to interview a potential buyer's child and another for instituting a policy requiring tenants to submit their pets to DNA tests to screen out undesirable breeds.

But as we've said before, along with bylaws and proprietary leases, house rules allow boards to keep their buildings running harmoniously. With the official start of summer right around the corner, now is a good time for boards to remind building residents of some of those rules — particularly regarding roof and pool access and grilling.

A READER ASKS: I'm on the board of a small co-op in Brooklyn. We are considering revising our pet policy. We went from no dogs to accepting dogs that are ten pounds or smaller. However, I've pointed out to my fellow board members that larger dogs, especially when they are older, can actually be a lot quieter than smaller, sometimes yippy, ones. I think there are compromises that can be made so that shareholders can have canine companions without disturbing their neighbors' peace of mind. Do you have any tips on how we can accomplish a fairer, more inclusive policy? Do you think it's even possible? What advice can you offer us? 

This week we meet the third and final baron of the boiler room, Avdi Rexhepi. He's the superintendent of Skyview-on-the-Hudson, a co-op in the Riverdale section of the Bronx. "If you keep the boiler room clean, you won't have any problems," predicts Rexhepi. "The boiler is like a car. The way you maintain it is the way it is going to run." Makes perfect sense, especially once you take a look at the pristine boiler room.

Rexhepi's regular ritual includes checking the boilers daily for any potential problems, cleaning the strainers every week and the tubes twice a year, as well as painting the boiler room annually and sweeping the floor continuously. It's at least five hours' worth of attention every week. And then a company comes in to clean and insulate the doors, usually at the start of the heating season.

Chances are that, if you live in a co-op or condo, you've heard far more about the 421a tax exemption in recent news than you have about the J-51 program. The latter tax abatement program can potentially help buildings save thousands of dollars, and expires this month. It's not received the same amount of press coverage as 421a, but State Senator Anthony Avella is working to change that. On June 3, Senator Avella introduced a J-51 extender bill, and is working on a companion bill in the New York State Assembly.

How can you ensure your building's energy bill comes in at budget? Lock in a price with your supplier for the next year right now. That's bold but confident advice from Jeff Cohn, president of Boro Energy, a Brooklyn company that has supplied energy to New York City buildings since 1929. Cohn says current prices are so low the only way is up. That means management companies and boards should take advantage of market prices and ink in budgets today. "It is a great time right now to lock in a fixed rate for oil and gas," says Cohn, whose grandfather founded Boro Energy, bought by Approved Oil in late 2012. "The low rates do not have anything to do with summer. It is just where prices are."

Say "doorman," and immediately everyone gets the same picture: black suit, white gloves, epaulets, probably some gold braid or a chauffeur-like cap. Stuffy. Traditional. What if it didn't have to be that way? For a certain subset of co-op and condo residents, it isn't. They're thinking outside the box and ushering in a new trend in doorman uniforms. Take the Butterfield House, a Greenwich Village co-op on 12th Street, between Fifth and Sixth avenues. In 2014, a water main broke outside the building and flooded the basement, lobby, and the parking garage. On top of the massive renovations now required, the building had lost all of its doormen's uniforms.