4 W. 105TH STREET

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.