Does Your Co-op or Condo Have an Alternative Parking Plan?

A fatal parking garage collapse in Lower Manhattan. A looming deadline on the first round of mandated inspections of parking garages. The prospect of major garage repairs — and the need to relocate cars while those repairs are completed.

All these variables add up to a pressing question: Is your co-op or condo board prepared for the financial and logistical nightmare if your parking garage requires major repairs? And be advised: a lot of garages are going to require major repairs.

“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, a senior vice president and director of management at Halstead. “Most buildings are facing repairs in the mid-six-figure range.”

Such major repairs are the fruit of Local Law 126, which went into effect at the beginning of 2022. Under the law, all parking structures in New York City must undergo inspections by a city-certified inspector every six years. Then, much like the Facade Inspection and Safety Program (formerly Local Law 11), garages must be deemed safe, unsafe, or safe with a program of repairs. All garages on the Upper West Side and below Central Park must be inspected by Dec. 31, 2023 — just over six months from now. Garages in the rest of Manhattan and Brooklyn must be inspected by the end of 2025, and in the other three boroughs by the end of 2027. Then the six-year cycle starts over. 

“With this new deadline (on Dec. 31), 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.”

If their garage needs major repairs, boards will be faced with a dual challenge: communication and logistics.

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“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, vice president and 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 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.” 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.”

Dennis DiPaola, executive vice president of Orsid Realty, 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.”

Darek Chrzanowski, an account executive at Stillman Management who was brought in as project manager to oversee a major garage repair project in the Bronx, urges boards to get busy before their inspection deadline looms. “It’s understandable that boards look at this as just another headache and another deadline to deal with,” Chrzanowski says. “But the longer they wait, the more it’s going to cost them.”