Morningside gardens - 80 Lasalle etc

The complex is great and financially sound. I recently closed a deal there in December and it had the fastest board approval process I’ve ever encountered by far (1 week from submission to approval). It is a former affordable housing development that has recently gone market rate. The location is very close to Columbia's Manhattanville expansion, which is currently a massive development site. Although there is not much going on in the area immediately north and west of the complex now (except Jin Ramen, which is great), once that project is up and running (phase 1 is targeted for 2017-2018), that area will likely become significantly more livable. The area immediately south is beautiful - largely Columbia and Barnard buildings.

Dan Gotlieb
Digs Realty Group
www.digsrealtynyc.com

We wanted to buy into that complex and looked at many apartments over a year. The layout of the apartments is similar to the single building at 303 W. 66th St and the cost is much less. The main reason we didn't buy there was that we changed jobs while we were looking there and this place was out of the way for our commute.

However, the managing agent said the board does reviews during their meeting the first week of the month. If you miss that window, it could take a month to close.

I was forewarned by a resident/friend that there were some long term, elderly owners who stopped paying maintenance for a long time. As those apartments are sold, they will recoup the maintenance.

The other problem is receiving packages. If you're not home when a delivery is made, there is no service on site to take your packages. There is a security booth and security guards patrol the complex.

Some of the apartments we looked at had been renovated, but the new flooring had problems. We discovered that they covered over black tile that was in bad shape. We discovered that it was asbestos tile Due to the way they had installed the new flooring, we needed asbestos abatement to strip everything down to the concrete. The price reflected the cost of asbestos abatement, so we didn't consider this a problem.

That's interesting about the tile because one agent told us the tile (actually linoleum) couldn't be removed at all because of the asbestos issue. Do you think this is dangerous?
What about the building's structure otherwise? Did they go market rate recently? I read something about resale restrictions as recently as 2009; is that still in place? Any other info? Thanks!!!