We own one of the 13 Proffesional Units at the Belltel and we are alarmed to see how against business the building attitude is turning.

The maintenance fee we pay every month pays for services like the gym, yoga room, rooftop, etc, that as a business we never use but we never complained about it.

Now however we are asked to pay to use the Business Center, the only common service that we need from time to time. The business center is used all of the time by nannys to eat or by students to study or watch movies without paying anything. But if we want to conduct a business meeting we are now being asked to book it in advance, fill a form, pay in advance.

We feel this is unfair since we are paying for all services and the only one we use from time to time is the Business Center. We also feel is discriminatory to us as business owners as non business owners are not been asked to pay for the common services in the building (ie: gym, yoga, loungue, etc).

trying to squeeze as much out of you guys as possible .. is the building financials up to snuff ?

Yes, I think Alan hit it. If you want exclusive use, you have to jump through hoops and pay small fee. Pretty standard for residents in condos.

Your CCs (not maintenance) per ft² are very low compared to a residential unit of similar size.

E.g., 4L at 732 ft² carries a PCI of 0.2091%, while 4Pr at 803 ft² is 0.0669%.

I don't know how fair that 3/1 ratio is in reflecting your lesser usage of the common elements, but it does tell us that all the professional-unit owners together carry very little weight in electing the board.

BTW, anybody know why the professional units are there to begin with? There's one per floor, all about the same size, which suggests that something about that space prevented the developer from either selling it as studios or adding it to adjoining apartments.

"We own one of the 13 Proffesional Units at the Belltel and we are alarmed to see how against business the building attitude is turning."

Right off the bat, I have to ask why you're conducting business in a building that's primarily residential in the first place.

If you want a corporate look, conduct business in a CORPORATE building. Don't put yourself in a residential building and complain that kids are running around and nannies are putting their feet up while you're trying to put together your next big deal.

Beg your pardon?

The building is residential with a mix of professional and commercial

So you knew what you were getting into, especially if it's MOSTLY residential.

You're trying to use common space for professional purposes that MOST people in the building use for personal use.

So you have to pay a few dollars to and schedule the use of a conference room, big deal. I work in a shared office suite in a 100% commercial building and they require exactly the same. Stop crying, its a business expense, deal with it.

We might not be here for too long

Here's the answer to why there's an ~800 ft² professional space on each of the lower floors.

On those floors the whole long east side of the building is on the lot line, so any room facing only east can't technically be called a LR or BR. E.g., #10N, with rooms called "Study" and "Home Occupancy" that can't be called bedrooms: http://img.streeteasy.com/nyc/image/94/2445394.jpg

The elevator/stair cores are on that side. That, together with the distance from the south or north sides, made that ~800 ft² on each of those floors unsaleable as residential space. The city would allow it to be only office or storage space, so the developer went with professional.

Kind of like being the token female on the company softball team that was forced to allow females or be ejected from the professional association's league.

The office space is not, in my opinion, suitable for any business where clients are expected to visit; which is surprising as the offices have been referred to a "professional" space in BellTel literature. The ceilings are of irregular height and in most places the average person can touch the ceiling. There is virtually no light as there is just one small window that is largely blocked from permitting light to enter the space by the irregular ceiling height. It is storage space being touted as "professional" space. For someone who works alone it may be fine but caution should be exercised by anyone considering real office space as a comparable; the real comparable in my view is a storage room.