Parking Disruption

The Edmond Lee co-op started its garage repairs just in the nick of time. The two-level structure at the postwar building at 3135 Johnson Ave. in the Bronx was showing signs of wear and tear, including crumbling concrete on the ceiling and support columns. An inspection revealed that water infiltration had corroded the rebar to the point where the garage was structurally unsound. In fact, soon after the 48-space garage was evacuated, a massive section of the ceiling collapsed. “We knew there was deterioration, but no one imagined that,” says Darek Chrzanowski, an account executive at Stillman Management who was brought in as project manager to oversee the repairs. “It was a huge project and caused a lot of disruption for everyone, but we avoided disaster.”

While the Edmond Lee was an extreme case, co-ops and condos across the city and state will soon be dealing with disruptions from garage repairs. In an effort to keep buildings safe and in compliance with construction codes, owners of parking garages must hire a licensed professional engineer to inspect the structure and file an assessment report with the Department of Buildings at least once every six years.

Like the Facade Inspection and Safety Program (formerly known as Local Law 11), the new city law requires inspectors to classify conditions as safe, safe with repair and/or engineering monitoring, or unsafe; if there are unsafe conditions, owners must repair them or safeguard the area within 90 days of filing the report. The first cycle to file without incurring a penalty, which began on Jan. 1 and will run through Dec. 31, 2023, affects parking structures in Community Districts 1 through 7 in Manhattan, which covers the Upper West Side and everything below Central Park. “With this new deadline, it’s the first time many boards will be taking a good look at the physical condition of their garages,” says Kathleen Needham Inocco, a principal at Midtown Preservation Architecture & Engineering. “It’s going to be an awakening.”

First Steps

For starters, boards can’t simply turn to their usual engineers to file the report; they must be a government-approved Qualified Parking Structure Inspector (a list is available at http://bit.ly/HAB_QPSI). And the inspections alone could prove costly. “If you don’t have the original structural drawings and an inspector needs to do sounding and proofing to evaluate whether the garage is stable, that could run into the tens of thousands of dollars,” says Inocco. “So it’s worth the effort to try to dig them up.”

Co-ops and condos would also be wise to have an action plan in place in the event repairs are required and the garage or a part of it needs to be shut down. 

“The first thing is to notify residents about the work being done, how long it will take, and how it will affect them,” says Brian Scally, a vice president and the director of management at Garthchester Realty. “It’s all about managing expectations.”

Boards can also ease the pain for shareholders and unit-owners by finding parking for them elsewhere. “At buildings where there’s room to jam-pack cars in another spot on the property, we’ve hired valets who will park your car and retrieve it for you,” Scally says. “You can even call ahead of time so it’s ready when you want, just like a commercial parking lot.”

When onsite parking isn’t available, Scally has rented space for clients at nearby buildings, store lots and corporate park lots, “basically anything I can get my hands on,” he says. That arrangement has an added benefit for boards concerned about losing a valuable revenue stream. “They might grant people a one-month abatement on parking fees, but since they are still providing guaranteed parking space, boards can keep the fees in place,” he says. “That money goes toward the short-term rental, so the building at least breaks even.”

Third-Party Transactions

Dennis DePaola, an executive vice president of Orsid New York, says that in cases where a commercial operator leases garage space from a co-op or condo, the ideal solution is to arrange parking for shareholders and unit-owners at the operator’s other lots. “People just keep making their regular payments to the garage operator,” he explains. “But if the entire garage has to be closed, boards will take a financial hit, since the typical provision in garage leases allows for an abatement of rent when there’s a full shutdown.”

In most situations, DePaola points out, only a portion of the parking structure is inaccessible for a short time, and boards can work with lessees to minimize disruption of both the garage operation and their rental revenue. “I had a building where there were repairs on just the garage entry for a week,” he says. “The monthly customers were able to get overnight parking at the operator’s other locations, but since its income from transient parkers at the building and at those other locations was affected, the board abated the rent for that week.”

Even when repairs are going to take a long time, it’s possible for boards to negotiate a deal. “We’ll get our lawyers to work out a compromise, like taking reduced compensation,” Scally says. “It’s in the interest of both parties to maintain a good relationship over the long haul, so typically the two sides will split the difference, with operators agreeing to paying half the monthly rent. They save, the boards lose less money, and everybody walks away relatively happy.”

A New Wrinkle

Condo boards, however, should brace themselves for more legal headaches as a result of the new inspection requirements. “At many condos, garages are not leased out by the association but actually owned by commercial operators, but the law as currently written isn’t clear about who is responsible for repairs, the garage owner or the building,” says Andrew P. Brucker, a partner at the law firm Armstrong Teasdale.

There’s also the matter of who owns what parts of the parking structure itself. At many buildings, the condo owns the common elements, like the ramp from the street, while ramps within the garage belong to the owner. “Garage operators, who want to stuff in as many cars as possible, often end up parking cars on the ramp, so when repairs are required there’s a fight over who pays for it,” Brucker says. “When that happens, you have to look at the exact wording of the condo documents, and if it’s not clear you’ll end up in court. It’s a common problem, and it’s only going to get worse.”

What Lies Ahead

The bottom line for boards? It’s a new era of additional inspections and costs. “At our buildings that have had preliminary garage inspections, some have been told not much work will be required, but that’s the minority at this point,” says Melissa Cafiero, the director of compliance at Halstead. “Most buildings are facing repairs in the mid-six-figure range, so having to put these placeholder numbers in their budgets for garage repairs is cause for concern.”

For his part, Syed Shoaib, a principal at Lawless + Mangione Architects and Engineers who worked on the garage repairs at the Edmund Lee, has yet to find one parking structure without problems in the course of his inspections so far. “That’s not surprising, especially after so many years of neglect and patchwork repairs,” he says. “At the Edmond Lee, for example, they had put a layer of asphalt on top of the cracked floor slabs, which only made conditions worse.”

After spending $3.6 million to repair its garage, the co-op’s board is relieved the work is done. “Fortunately, the reserves were solid, so there was no need for a mortgage refinance or assessment,” says Chrzanowski, the project manager. The board will also be ahead of the game once the filing dates for the city’s other community districts, including those in the Bronx, are set. “If the mandate for the garage inspections had been implemented sooner, obviously we would not have been in such bad shape,” he says. “It’s understandable that boards look at this as just another headache and another deadline to deal with. But the longer they wait, the more it’s going to cost them.”