The Art of Squeezing Money from Your Building

Savvy co-op and condo boards are perpetually on the lookout for ways to raise revenue so they can meet rising expenses while keeping monthly maintenance low. Boards have been known to sell their air rights or rent roof space for cell-phone relay towers. Or switch from park-and-lock to valet service in their parking garages. Or add a level to a penthouse apartment, increasing the number of shares and the income from monthly maintenance.

But there are limits. A co-op board member tells Brick Underground that there’s a Verizon FiOS box in the building’s courtyard, providing phone service for the entire neighborhood. Can the board demand a fee from Verizon?

"A right of way [fee from Verizon] may have no appreciable impact to your property," says Thomas Usztoke, vice president of Douglas Elliman Property Management. "But being the board that denies your neighbor building access to FiOS may not be the talk of the neighborhood you want to portray."

Verizon spokesman Ray McConville adds, "We own all of our telecommunications infrastructure in New York City, and the rights of way within that. There's also infrastructure that exists inside buildings that they own, and we can't do anything on those properties without getting permission. It is not a standard practice of ours to compensate property owners for letting us wire their property."

Translation: there’s a limit to how much money co-op and condo boards can squeeze from their properties. But they should keep trying.