The future of NYC Real Estate

https://therealdeal.com/new-york/2023/08/28/small-condo-development-leads-the-way-for-new-housing-projects/

Sorry, what exactly did these people do wrong? Did they have an option of building bigger, or are they following zoning regulations? Or maybe are limited by lot sizes?

"These people" aren't doing anything wrong. In the immortal words of Canada Bill Jones:
"It's immoral to let a sucker keep his money."

Personally I would not live in such a small condo.
My 50 unit condo has enough budgeting problems.

Small condos seem like worst of both worlds - coordination issues & lack of control of communal ownership, but with house-like surprise lump sum costs bc big 6-figure bills when a boiler/elevator/roof/etc goes out only divide out to a handful of units..

steve123,
And it's extremely difficult to get a competent Managing Agent. In my experience people aren't ready for the responsibilities of being a partner in a small building. They think they are tenants and the landlord should handle everything

There were buildings in Brooklyn we converted to Coop and shareholders would still call us expecting their broken stoves be replaced by us on our dime.

There are a lot of beautiful small coop buildings (about 12-18 units, 2-3 units on each floor) in Jackson Heights. These small coop buildings have a shared beautiful blockwide interior garden.

I like the blockwide interior garden, but my wife didn't like the ancient elevator so we never got the chance to live in those small coop buildings.

I haven't heard of the problems of these small coops. Yes, the shareholders are expected to take some responsibility to take care of the building at some time point. One small coop replaced the old elevator at the cost of maintenance increase of 10-20%.

The poster child against small Coops has to be 19-23 West 9th Street.

judging from how often my clients call me about it, insurability of the small buildings is a huge issue.

Wouldn’t a solution be for multiple small buildings, if located nearby, to join into one coop, and spread out risks and staff?

Krolik, that's what my old building did -- it's actually one address and one co-op that encompasses three buildings.

But governance goes the other way too -- the "Fitzroy townhouses" on West 23rd are all architecturally of a piece, but different addresses have different boards.

Exactly, governance in multi-building condos/coops can be a big problem.
Boards are composed of self-interested individuals. New Yorkers are busy people who mostly can't be bothered engaging in the management of their dwelling.

If you get a board composed mostly of residents of building A, how much thought & caring will they put into the upkeep of building B?

Theres 100s of judgement call decisions boards make. When is the paint bad enough to repaint the lobby?

When is a front door lock / intercom annoyance bad enough to merit replacing? When are periodic facade/roof leaks bad enough to merit a full inspection/replacement? Circulation pump issues causing hot water to be a bit slow. Package thefts meriting upgrading your circuity camera system?

When its not your building, you just don't care as much.

Steve>> New Yorkers are busy people who mostly can't be bothered engaging in the management of their dwelling.

There are full service buildings for these people but you pay a lot for services (having servants as Aaron put it in a different post).

If you are on a budget, do not mind doing some work as people do in the rest of America with their homes (a little humility needed as well), and do not want to pay for services, there are small condos. Ideal small condo less than 3-4 story tall (driver by zoning), has ridiculously low common charges. As there is no staff besides some one coming to clean common space, no elevator, and no common equitpment for the building except water supply and sprinkler. Every has their own water heater and boiler/heat pump HVAC. Sprinkler maintenance contract is given to a company. Security system can be wireless ring system. High-rise facade requirement do not apply to these. So main shared responsibilities are non high-rise facade and roof. And there is plenty of insurance available as they are no different from 10s of thosands of existing small buildings in NYC.

There is a huge eco-system of trades people who will do repairs in these buildings at very reasonable price as these buildings do not have ridiculous insurance requirements and you can buy your own 50 gallon hot water heater from homedepot from $1200 if it is not working and get it replaced for $500 additional fee.

You just can't be used to servants. Packages are your responsibility and there is no one to compain about the theft but you are record the front door via your own wireless ring doorbell system which you can use to open your building door remotely. Technology has improved drastically.

@300 - I wonder where the cutoff is / what the distribution of these types of buildings looks like.
My good friend lives in a ~6 story building with an equal number of units, and even at that size they have a shared boiler for hot water/heating, plus an elevator, etc.

So are you essentially talking about 4 story & less buildings with essentially 4 units here? Short enough theres no elevator. Having per-unit HVAC I understand, lots of solutions like mini splits for that. I'm surprised that each unit would have its own hot water system, where do they put the hot water tank? What fuel do they use for the heating, and where is the boiler kept? Is there a shared basement where it's all stuffed?

Even if high rise facade inspection laws don't apply, the facade can certainly leak & need upkeep just as well as a high rise. Case in point - I've had facade leaks in 2 of the 4 apartments I lived in NYC. Both of those were in units I lived 5+ years. The leakless units were 1-3 year stints, so probably I just wasn't there long enough.

My point re: forming a coop/condo across multiple of these types of units.
There's still enough ad-hoc expenses & upkeep that you don't want someone who doesn't even live in your building having the decision power over.

Basic test for low maintenance is no elevator no shared boiler/hot water. Boilers can be in unit electric or in the basement if gas.

You will be surprised how much more stringent DOB facade requirements are for high-rises.

You definitely do not want to add bureaucracy by forming condo across multiple such buidings (more than 10 units; I think it may make sense but bureaucracy is very expensive and slows down decision making). The guiding principle is shared active responsibility of unit owners. If you want everything done for you that is expensive. Then these small buildings not for you.

You want a 6-10 units full service building with doorman, you are screwed.

steve123, Email me at 300streeteasy@gmail.com. I will give send you examples.

>> Case in point - I've had facade leaks in 2 of the 4 apartments I lived in NYC. Both of those were in units I lived 5+ years. The leakless units were 1-3 year stints, so probably I just wasn't there long enough.

I live in more than 100 year old building. We haven't has a facade leak for as long as any one here can remember perhaps becasue of stringent facade requirements and brick and stone contruction.

Most facade leaks in brick and stone buildings are from inaqeuate window sealing. That is very easy to fix and usually is limited to just the leaking window area.

6/10 unit full service = $ to burn. Not for many people.

I wonder where 300 Mercer is developing such a building because he usually reserves total bullshit like this for when he is secretly talking his own book.