New York's Cooperative and Condominium Community

Habitat Magazine Insider Guide

HABITAT

MANHATTAN

An immense, 14-room duplex apartment in the River House co-op in Manhattan's Turtle Bay neighborhood has finally gone into contract after nearly 25 years of uncertainty, The Wall Street Journal reports. The 5,000-square-foot apartment was first caught int the middle of the 18-year divorce proceedings between Arlene Farkas, the current seller, and her ex-husband Bruce Farkas, heir to the now-defunct Alexander's department-store chain. For a half-dozen years after that, the apartment was listed unsuccessfully from a high of $15 million to the $7.8 million that brokers told the Journal was the recent sale price.

The sale is emblematic of a change in River House's market history, which despite a purchase in November by the actress Uma Thurman has been lackluster in recent years, for reasons including the co-op board's reputation for being difficult. That may be changing: Last year, the board briefly put the 1931 building's private River Club space on the market as a private residence, but instead reached a deal with the club under which residents are automatically invited to join. (Subscription required, or you can read an abstract, with several photos, at Curbed.NY.com.)

Lower Manhattan’s iconic Woolworth Building is poised to break a price record: Developer Alchemy Properties is listing the penthouse apartment, a mammoth nine-story unit, at $110 million, according to Bloomberg Businessweek. The previous record-holder in that general area was the penthouse at the Walker Tower in Chelsea, which sold for $50.9 million in January.

Because the price for the Woolworth penthouse is only on the offering plan as of now, it’s difficult to predict whether it will actually sell for that or what the taxes might be on such an expensive condominium unit. Eric Weiss, a tax attorney and partner at the law firm of Tuchman, Korngold, Weiss, Liebman & Gelles, says even making an educated guess at the taxes is difficult because according to New York State tax law, the amount is based on not the apartment's market price but on its theoretical, "comparable" rental value. “The problem is there really isn't a rental market for that [kind of unit],” he says. Since the annual property-tax bill on the Walker Tower penthouse is nearly $49,000, he notes, it’s easy to imagine the Woolworth Building taxes breaking at least six figures.

New York University  is fighting with its neighbors again — but this time, the miffed neighbor is a condo board. The New York Times is reporting that NYU is trying to connect its Institute of Fine Arts, on the Upper East Side, to a newly donated, ground-floor condominium apartment next door at 3 East 78th Street. The issue? The university wants to create a covered passageway — a breezeway — in an alley between the buildings. But the condo board objects, saying it suspects NYU is using the apartment as a beachhead to eventually buy up the whole building, and that having students as a permanent presence will hurt apartments' market values — said apartments being owned by the likes of the president of Dannon.

The fight, which by now also involves the Landmarks Preservation Commission and Community Board 8, is currently at a stalemate.

The five story co-op at 199 East 7th Street has been around since that part of the chi-chi East Village was still known as the Lower East Side. The name transition was just beginning when Mary Veronica Santiago-Monteverde and her late husband Hector Santiago moved there in 1965, more than a quarter-century before the rent-stabilized walkup was converted in the co-op boom of the eighties.

And three decades down from that, the fate of a 79-year-old widow will impact like a meteor on everything co-op boards think they know about their grandfathered, rent-stabilized tenants.

One day in February 2012, a fragment of stone façade chipped away from the two-building, 14-unit condo at 42-50 Wooster Street. "The previous winter had been very cold, and this little piece — maybe two inches wide — fell down," says Liz Sabosik of The Andrews Organization, the condominium's property manager. "It must have taken on a little water, frozen and popped off. So we immediately set up a sidewalk shed and started interviewing architects."

While the main problem was dealing with damage as a result of shifting buildings, the board seized the opportunity to take on some proactive work. Board members realized they could save money in the long run by piggybacking onto this main project the smaller projects that would eventually need to be completed.

A Chelsea condominium designed by world-renowned architect Jean Nouvel is facing blowback from residents over a whopping $8 million assessment — put in place, they say, to make up for shoddy workmanship. The New York Post is reporting that at least one resident of 100 11th Avenue has since put her unit on the market, and that one 65-year-old retiree has been socked with a $120,000 bill. Nouvel, for his part, has criticized developer Cape Advisors, which controls the board, saying in 2010 that the firm went "off course" because it wanted to "complete the building as inexpensively as possible."

The condo board at Five Nine John Lofts, at 59 John Street, has failed in its attempt to prevent the New York City Probation Department from moving its adult facilities down the street to 66 John Street. According to TheRealDeal.com, a Manhattan Supreme Court judge ruled that the condominium filed its lawsuit too late – and it probably wouldn’t have prevailed based on the facts anyway.

Have any problematic city facilities come to your own neighborhood? Are any planning to? Let your fellow board members and homeowners know on Board Talk.

The West Side Rag blog has introduced a new series of profiles of Upper West Side doormen. The first one introduces Robert, a 34-year-old Serbian doorman at 333 West End Avenue, who has just become an American citizen. Tessa Abrahams discusses with Robert why he moved to the United States and hears from residents about his relentlessly positive outlook on life.

A Manhattan Supreme Court judge has thrown out a lawsuit against the developers of The Apthorp condominium on the Upper West Side.

The Real Deal revealed that the $750,000 suit, which claimed that a descending staircase cut the plaintiff’s unit in half, was tossed when the judge ruled that the agreement was for an 'as is' purchase, and therefore it was up to the buyer to inquire as to the condition of the apartment.

The practice of turning apartments into hotel rooms or bed-and-breakfasts has become so common that it has attracted the attention of legislators, the State's bar association and the State attorney general. Co-op and condo board members, as well as apartment-owners concerned about non-vetted, non-background-checked strangers roaming halls and stairwells, should know what's going on, in order to keep the pressure on elected representatives.

1... 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 ... 94

Ask the Experts

learn more

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

Source Guide

see the guide

Looking for a vendor?