CO-OP/CONDO BUYERS

The former site of St. Vincent's Hospital in the West Village has its first two official sales, according to The New York Times. Each unit sold for more than $15 million – with floor plans that would make any house-hunter drool. "Each of these similarly sized sponsor apartments — featuring private 83-square-foot loggias off an eat-in kitchen and family room, and direct elevator access — occupies an entire floor at 145 West 11th Street," proclaims the Times; the more expensive unit also has "a library with a fireplace, a home office, a large utility room with a washer/dryer and a centrally located gallery." With a floor plan of over 4,500 square feet, maybe a Roomba or two would make a nice housewarming gift.

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It's no secret that the world of New York City real estate is a complex one. It's kind of incredible that there's so much construction happening everywhere you look —considering that, oftentimes, plans can take a long time to finally come into fruition. Take the redevelopment of the American Bible Society at 1865 Broadway, for example. The concept that YIMBY featured in early 2014 fell through. But now it looks like things are starting to move forward again. YIMBY explains that "Skidmore Owings & Merrill has been tapped to design the project, and thanks to a tipster’s submission of diagrams for the project, [YIMBY was] able to create renderings that are a close approximation of what the building will ultimately look like." Check it out. Provided these latest plans don't fizzle out, when the tower is completed, there will be 26 condos for the taking, "all either two or three bedrooms besides a 4,000-square-foot four-bedroom unit on the penthouse level."

Rendering by New York YIMBY 

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A father and his daughter owned a cooperative apartment. The father died. The daughter remained in occupancy, but maintenance payments fell into arrears. The board of directors wanted to initiate legal proceedings. It turns out that the deceased and his daughter owned the shares as tenants-in-common. That means, among other things, that ownership of the shares and lease did not pass directly to the daughter. So, legal proceedings had to be started against the daughter and the executor of the father's estate.

The corporation obtained from the court a judgment of possession and a warrant of eviction against the daughter and the executor. The daughter asked that enforcement proceedings be delayed to sell the unit. The board gave her an extended period of time for this to happen, but it did not. A contract of sale was prepared but was not joined in by the executor, so ownership could not pass. The board is proceeding with its eviction and foreclosure of the cooperative apartment.

Takeaway

The lesson of this tale is that, when dealing with an apartment sale, boards and their transfer agents should be more astute about the manner in which the title is held. If they aren't diligent, they can get into complicated estate issues such as this. The way ownership of a cooperative or condominium is held is important. This is particularly so when the co-owners are of different age brackets or life expectancies, or have different relationships. In any event, ownership as a tenant-in-common, as in this case, caused the father's shares to pass through his estate and not directly to the daughter. Whether this was really the father's intent will never be known. If the shares had been listed as joint tenants with right of survivorship, the daughter would have been the sole owner at the time her father died. Boards should advise owners of jointly owned residential community associations to review their estate plans in general, and their form of unit ownership in particular.

Lewis Montana is a principal attorney at Levine & Montana.

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Soho is getting it's own Flatiron Building. The boat-shaped structure at 10 Sullivan Street is almost complete. Curbed writes that the 16-story, 203-foot-tall structure will have 22 condos, ground floor retail, and — are you ready? — parking. Considering how many parking lots in and out of the city are vanishing to make way for condos, that's pretty neat. The Cary Tamarkin-designed project, which is being developed by Property Markets Group and Madison Equities, "has been billed as 'the highest residence in all of Soho.'" Well the highest is the $45 million 8,359-square-foot triplex penthouse, which boasts a 23-foot-tall ceiling, two wraparound balconies, a roof deck, and a private pool. It's good to be the king.

Photo of 10 Sullivan Street via New York YIMBY.

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More condos are set to rise in the Financial District. It looks like the latest in the works is a 65-story condo tower that will put the vacant site at 45 Broad Street to good use. According to The Real Deal, Robert Gladstone's Madison Equities and partners Pizzarotti Group "closed on the purchase of the land for $86 million and secured a $75 million acquisition loan." Tentatively scheduled for completion in 2019, the residential tower will span 290,000 square feet. Architect Cetra/Ruddy will be designing the building. 

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In a corner in Soho rises a six-story development — a boutique condominium, which is the posh way of saying, "Don't expect a whole lot of space." In the case of 52 Wooster, potential buyers should also not expect a whole lot of amenities, save for some complimentary storage in the basement. No pet spas, no gym, no playground. The developer spins it as "a move that decisively bucks a trend" and that touts more of "a private-home feeling." But as Jane Gol, the president of Continental Ventures — the condo's developer — points out to The New York Times, people can go outside to find the things they need. Pet spas and gyms are a dime a dozen in Soho, so that's the place to be if you're building isn't bursting with a load of extras. Despite having "to contend with a shoehorn-tight construction site at the corner of Broome Street," the site measures about 100 feet long and 25 feet wide. The space was a former parking lot, and to make up for the lack of amenities, "Continental is maximizing the apartment layouts, making them as sweeping as those in the older lofts found throughout the neighborhood." The units go on sale this month. How much? Around $2,500 a square foot — or $5 million for the three-bedrooms, and it will be move-in ready by next year.

Rendering from Kim Wendell Design

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At 3 A.M. Tuesday this week, a five-alarm fire broke out at the Dorian condo development. The fire spread quickly, engulfing the building's fourth, fifth, and sixth floors and required nearly 250 firefighters to finally contain it by 7 in the morning. Although the cause of the fire is still unknown, the nightmarish scene really could have been so much worse. For starters, nobody was hurt — it helped that the building was empty. The Real Deal reports that, fortunately (given the situation) a fire watch company was on site at the time of the blaze. Furthermore, "structural engineers and officials from the city’s Department of Buildings have inspected what remains of the building, and determined that it appears to be structurally sound." Citing a press release from the developer, TRD added that the site was fully insured, and [Delshah] plans proceed with work." Originally slated to be completed by the end of 2016, the Dorian will be a 40,000-square-foot luxury condo building with 14 units, including full-floor penthouses on the upper four floors. 

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It's been a few months since we've heard any noise coming from Park Slope about the Pavilion Theater condo conversion project. Locals gave the first renderings a resounding thumbs down, likening the design to a penitentiary in Sunset Park. It was back to the drawing board for Hidrock Realty, which got the nod to proceed from Community Board 6's Landmarks and Land Use Committee — on the condition that architects tone down the design. The committee asked to see a less bright brick color and for the five-story building to be set back so it looks less bulky and more in line with the neighborhood's late 19th-century architecture. According to DNAinfo, Hidrock Realty is ready with its revised plans. "The tweaked renderings show that Morris Adjmi Architects made several changes, including setting back the fifth floor of the proposed six-story condo building by 6 feet and making the cornice more prominent to blend in better with neighboring buildings on Bartel-Pritchard Square," reports DNAinfo, adding that "the brick color for the building has been warmed up, and some of the windows in the ground-floor commercial space are now smaller." Will it cut the mustard for Community Board 6 members and other community activists? Well, according to the report, neighbors said Monday "they appreciated Hidrock's revisions, but want the developer to make even more changes." 

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East 95th Street is no stranger to luxury towers. Take the Normandie Court, for example: 4 towers, 34 floors, 1,477 apartments. It's about to get some company. Well, in just under two years, anyway. A 30-story condo tower is due to rise at East 95th, and according to the developer — Extell Development Company — units will be priced between $2.8 and $20 million. DNAinfo reports that Extell — the developer behind Midtown's One57 and a controversial luxury tower on the East River waterfront — has dubbed the project The Kent. It "will include 83 units, with sales expected to begin early next year, according to Katherine McPherson, a spokeswoman for Extell." The tower is scheduled to be completed by fall or winter 2017.

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Earlier this year, the developer behind the condo conversion of Dumbo's 10 Jay Street won over the Landmarks Preservation Commission with a design that paid tribute to the building's history as a sugar refinery. It used glass pieces in the façade to represent the crystal-like shine of sugar. It was certainly a step away from the usual glass and steal high-rises or the Jenga towers proliferating in neighborhoods like Tribeca. So it's kind of a bummer to hear that plans for the unusual building have been scrapped. According to The Real Deal, the developer plans to keep the "warehouse as a commercial property, citing rising demand in the Brooklyn office market." All may not be lost, however, at least aesthetically speaking. TRD reports that the developer will keep the ODA New York-designed crystallized façade, "but instead of converting the warehouse to 46 condos, it will now market the building’s approximately 200,000 square feet for office and retail uses." At least those of us who never had a chance of snapping up one of those condos will still have something pretty to look at. 

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