MANHATTAN

Recent news affecting co-op / condo buyers, sellers, boards and residents. As the year ends, some things don't change. To wit: Two Financial District condo boards and Pace University have filed a lawsuit to keep a city Probation Department center out of the neighborhood; co-op shareholders at Dunham House on the Upper East Side are fighting a retailer who threatens to block their views; and a condo board in Flushing, Queens, is getting sued for its treatment of a Buddhist church. Man, who hates Buddhists? Plus, one of the New York Giants is renting out his condo apartment during Super Bowl week since, let's face it, the Giants have no reason to stick around.

Josette Cerasuola has lived at the 57-unit cooperative Gotham House, at 150 East 27th Street in the Kips Bay neighborhood of Manhattan since before it went co-op in 1979. She began her long service on the board in 1992. She recently spoke with Habitat Editorial Director Tom Soter for the first in a series in which board members help other board members by sharing their tips and philosophies.

Recent news affecting co-op / condo buyers, sellers, boards and residents. Not a good week, this week. A failed gas line at Seward Park affected 400 apartments. A visitor leapt to her death from a Yorkville condominium, traumatizing residents. And even at an expensive Upper East Side condo, a penthouse-dweller is stuck in an elevator for over an hour without help arriving.

The Churchill, a cond-op in the Murray Hill section of Manhattan, is widely considered one of New York City's finest buildings. Yet, until recently, the 30 staff members who open the doors, greet residents, help with packages and fix the leaks were lacking the polish of the building's exquisite lobby. "We have an excellent staff, but they needed to hear and see the basics," says Ronald Kaslow, president of the board. "We saw that even some of our better people [could use some advice]." 

The board then did something novel in the world of residential real estate: It sent them to "school" for "customer care."

The engineer's 10-year plan for 240 East 46th Street called for virtually a total makeover — renovating the lobby and replacing the roof, boiler, both elevators, water tank and all hallway carpeting and wallpaper. The cost would come to about $1.7 million. Now the big question: How would the condominium association pay for it?

Recent news affecting co-op / condo buyers, sellers, boards and residents. This week, a Chelsea condo board has won its battle with a downstairs gym, New York City investigates possible fraud by Lower East Side co-op board members and a Queens co-op says it's not soulless. The Comptroller says the City goes too easy on water-bill deadbeats, raising rates for the rest of us. An expert answers: Are condo boards as powerful as co-op boards? And Law & Order's Richard Belzer sells his co-op. Dun dun!

Recent news affecting co-op / condo buyers, sellers, boards and residents. This week, we already knew that Class 2 properties — co-ops, most condos and rental buildings — carry an unfairly higher tax burden than Class 1 properties such as single-family homes. But a recent Furman Center panel of academics and other experts — including a former Dept. of Finance commissioner and the deputy director of the New York City Independent Budget Office — quantified just how much: Class 2 is taxed at a rate almost five times higher than Class 1. Check out the first article below for details.

Among the other news this week: a co-op's attempt to evict a 78-year-old over minor hoteling and a condo board's ongoing suit against a bad-neighbor gym.

Recent news affecting co-op / condo buyers, sellers, boards and residents.

This week, a co-op shareholder in Queens complains about a neighbor's noise and gets heard in court, and a condo board in Chelsea sues a commercial gym over weighty noise issues. A newspaper says almost half the buildings that object to Cite Bikes don't get them, but you can't wait till you know they're coming. Bike 22. What's the latest luxury amenity? On Park and Fifth Avenues, it's private restaurants just for residents and guests. Plus, Leonardo DiCaprio buys a "wellness" apartment in Greenwich Village. Yeah, we didn't know what that was, either. Sounds nice, though.

Hank Haynes bought an apartment at 240 East 46th Street in 1990, four years after the building was converted from a rental to a condominium. It didn't take him long to realize he'd bought into a world of woe. Phone calls were not returned, problems were left to fester and rancor was the rule of the day.

"When I moved in, there was a tremendous amount of animosity between the sponsor and the people who had bought apartments," recalls Haynes, 67. "People were unhappy with the management company, which was owned by the sponsor." To further increase the discontent of the unit-owners: The property manager and the accountant also worked for the sponsor. Times were tough at the 100-unit building.

When breakdowns are a regular event and patchwork is no longer cost-efficient, it may be time to upgrade your elevators.

That was the thinking by the board of managers running the three high-rises that comprise Towers on the Park condominium association at 301 Cathedral Parkway in South Harlem and 300 Cathedral Parkway and 220 Manhattan Avenue in Manhattan Valley. “It was 25 years, and the elevators’ long work life had come to an end,” says Jane Reynolds, one of the nine residents who sit on the board.