building at 40 East 80th Street

The lease goes through 2068. The 20 years is probably when the rent resets.

The landowner is the Church of Christ. Lots of churches develop their land under leasehold, maybe because covenants prevent their selling the land outright.

40E80 was built as a co-op in 1970, couldn't sell any units, went rental and then co-op again.

See also http://caselaw.findlaw.com/ny-supreme-court-appellate-division/1263075.html

Looked into the building some years ago. Although lawyers were careful with landlease and the relationships between the coop and the church have been problematic, the apartments facing madison on high floors were nice and had great light. Kitchens were large and there are I believe only two apartments per floor. I know several owners in the building (some are lawyers) and they have been very positive about the building. At the end , it is a matter of comfort level with landlease which correlates to the discounted purchase price of the 3 units on the market.

How concerned should I be about the rent re-setting? Will reset again in 2022, so 11 years from now.

It depends on the terms. You need to run the numbers to see whether the price now is low enough to account for the potentially-zero value of the shares when the lease ends. See http://streeteasy.com/nyc/talk/discussion/18999-is-this-a-land-lease-building

What are the financing terms? What % down?

NWT, thanks for very helpful explanations

The land lease did not bother me when I was outbid on an apartment in this building. That is because unlike many other land lease situations, the coop owns the air rights. The Church next door owns the land without any right to build more than a tiny building on it. When the Church and the building negotiate, the Church has no nuclear weapon -- they have only a pop-gun. I saw this as a great opportunity to buy an apartment with the built-in land lease "discount," with none of your typical land lease risks.