CO-OP/CONDO BUYERS

With its bright lights and bombastic reputation, New York City is a bustling place. It's the last place you'd expect to have peace and quiet. But that doesn't stop the noise from rankling many of its residents. It may well be called the city that never sleeps with good reason, but that doesn't change the fact that many of us have to be up at 6 a.m. or earlier (ouch) to get ready for work. And if New Yorkers are good at something, it's complaining.

Michael Lentin, owner of CitiQuiet (soundproof windows), has mapped the neighborhoods with the most 311 calls and why people complain.

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Celebrity and clout didn't help fashion designer Cynthia Rowley any after renovations to her townhouse on 30 Perry Street ticked off condo owners in the building next door. And now she's getting sued. The lawsuit alleges that Rowley didn't check with the condo board of the historic 28 Perry Street building "before installing a set of three plumbing and ventilation pipes on the outside walls of their building," reports DNAinfo, nor did she get the city's Landmarks Preservation Commission's (LPC) okay. Uh-oh. Neither the board's lawyer nor Rowley returned DNAinfo's requests for comments; however, a spokesperson for the LPC confirmed that the commission issued permits for the work being done in Rowley's building, adding that it has not received any complaints. Will Rowley be able to complete her renovation project, which involves adding a penthouse and replacing pipes that connect to the boiler, fireplace, and cooking fixtures? Will the 28 Perry Street condo owners succeed in having Rowley remove the pipes, obstructions, and debris, and pay damages and legal fees? We'll be watching this latest battle unfold.

Photo by Nicholas Strini for Property Shark.

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Park Slope's architecture is most certainly one of the factors that make this area of Brooklyn such a desirable place to live. The buildings in this neighborhood have character — even those that fall into disrepair. Such is the case with the five-story building at 187 Seventh Avenue, at Second Street. It was once owned by Dorothy Nash, reports The New York Times, who "also operated the Landmark Pub [there] until the late 1990s. [She] moved out at some point." Covered in graffiti, dilapidated and with most of its roof missing, it was considered an eyesore by many. Luckily, Sugar Hill Capital Partners, the developers who snapped it up for $4.2 million in 2013 after it was threatened with foreclosure, has decided to invest an additional $6 million to restore it and build four three-bedroom condos, along with an elevator, lobbies, and retail space. According to The Times, the condos, "called 2ND7TH, will be completed in the fall and went on the market this month, with prices starting at $3.198 million." 

Photo by Kate Leonova for Property Shark.

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Maybe not everyone in New York is a fan of all the new condos going up, but sometimes good does come out of the inconvenience of noisy construction sites. Founded by Polish immigrants from Mezritch in 1910, the Adas Yisroel Anshe Mezritch Synagogue fell into such a state of disrepair it was forced to close its doors six months ago. But before you lament yet another piece of New York history gone, good news. The synagogue is being completely renovated and is scheduled to open its doors again this year, thanks to a new condo plan, reports the New York Daily News. The temple will remain on the ground floor, and "three luxe apartments, including one 11-foot penthouse addition, will be built upstairs" and are scheduled to hit the market this fall. Not everyone is happy about turning part of a religious building "over to for-profit real estate developers," but thanks to the controversial deal, at least the building and the shul will be preserved. According to the Daily News, East River Partners (the developer) "is also planning to pay an annual maintenance fee to keep the shul running for 200 more years." That's a pretty neat compromise.

Photo by Nicholas Strini for Property Shark.

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If you want a snapshot of how New York's property management field has changed over the past quarter-century, you should look into the history of Cooper Square Realty. When Dan Wurtzel joined the fledgling company in 1987, he was one of four employees. Today, he's president of the New York operation of FirstService Residential, which purchased a stake in Cooper Square in 2003 and later formed partnerships with Wentworth New York and Goodstein Management. With 400 employees and more than 500 properties in its portfolio, FirstService Residential is now the largest management firm in the city.

A subsidiary of Toronto-based FirstService Corp., FirstService Residential operates in 21 states and has more than 12,000 employees. 

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You can thank a farmer in Kansas for what is about to happen to the world of New York co-op lending. Whether you call him Terry Kinderknecht, Terrance J. Kinderknecht, Terry J. Kinderknecht, or Terrance Joseph Kinderknecht, he hit hard times and declared bankruptcy in 2002. A year before going under, though, Kinderknecht had financed two new tractors from John Deere, and the loan documents were filed under the name "Terry J. Kinderknecht."

And herein lies the problem.

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Prices in Brooklyn continue to skyrocket, and more of the locations that make Brooklyn so charming and engaging to new residents continue to disappear. Even landmarks have to make way for all those new condos. And another one just bit the dust, reports the New York Daily News. The historic Brooklyn Lyceum on 227 4th Avenue — which was originally a public bathhouse and most recently a performance venue — is going condo. According to the Daily News, former owner Eric Richmond fell behind on mortgage payments, which opened the door for real estate developer Greystone. The developer snapped up the Fourth Avenue landmark for $7.6 million at a foreclosure auction in October last year, and will be converting the space into high-end townhouse-style homes. Alas, no more eccentric musical acts by independent artists. But there is a silver lining: the building's "celebrated façade, which still features stucco and terra-cotta dolphins dating back to the building's bathhouse days, will remain intact."

Photo by Kate Leonova for Property Shark.

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Early this month, The New York Times declared 2015 to be the Year of the Condo, and with good reason. Reports from various residential brokerages, including the Corcoran Sunshine Marketing Group cited by the Times, projected that at least 6,500 new luxury condo units in more than 100 buildings would be available for the taking this year. After a five-year drought, that figure seemed pretty impressive. But a report published last week by Halstead Property Development Marketing paints a different picture.

It looks like the number of new condos available for purchase this year is closer to about 3,500. Why?

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When it's 30 degrees outside, the last thing on your mind is probably one of the best amenities your co-op or condo may have: the swimming pool. But just because the pool may be out of sight, doesn't necessarily mean it should be out of mind.

Depending on whether your building has an indoor or outdoor pool and what the operating hours are — namely, whether the pool is seasonal — now is an ideal time for boards to take a look at the pool to see what kind of shape it's in, whether it needs any maintenance, and whether it's time to talk about renovating it. Seasonal pools tend to open for business on Memorial Day, and May 25 will be here sooner than you think.

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Want one for the "Who'd have thunk it?" file? A landlord tried to evict a woman from her apartment in Harlem for secretly keeping a dog and thus being in violation of her lease. And lost. Why? Because secret agent pooch was not so secret, explains Brickunderground.com. It turns out that Gertrude Davis, the dog owner in question, not only produced various photos of Dutchess, the dog in question, taken on various dates in the building's common areas, but also had thrown the dog "a birthday party in the building several months prior to the suit." And guess who was at the party? Two points if you said "the landlord." According to the New York Daily News, which first reported the story, months after attending the pup's lavish birthday soiree, "the landlord moved to give [Davis] the boot," but Judge Sabrina Kraus wasn't buying it. According to court documents, reported both Brickunderground.com and the Daily News, "…the party pictures showed the dog was kept in an 'open and notorious' manner for more than three months." So there you have it. Thanks to that birthday party, Davis gets to stay in her home of 20 years.

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