BASEMENT SPACE

Begin your gold-mining expedition by accompanying your superintendent and managing agent on a tour of the basement. Do not allow any door to remain unopened. If the super does not have the key, then demand to know who does and gain access to that room. In extreme cases, drill the locks! It's your building.

Once you've examined all the rooms, compile a list of the approximate dimensions of each. This will help you determine their best uses. Boards have created the likes of laundry rooms, gymnasiums, rainy-day playrooms, and meeting rooms. One of our buildings duplexed the ground-floor apartments into the basements. Make sure you note the presence of overhead pipes, support beams, etc., and watch for possible leaks that could impact the ability to use the room.

While reviewing the potential, try to consider which room might be best for the superintendent’s workshop. Although there's no legal requirement to have one, it can be a significant asset to the professional services your building staff can offer your residents.

Opening the Storage

One typical use of basement space is to provide storage. Once you've identified a sufficiently large space for a storage-bin facility, you'll need to find out whether residents are already using parts of the basement for personal storage. If so, consult with your attorney to determine whether you have any continuing obligation to provide them this space.

If those residents are rent-regulated, however, then you may not be able to evict them — or if you do, you may be obligated to find them alternative space. Most offering plans stipulate that the board cannot diminish the services provided to rent-regulated tenants. Terminating the occupancy of a storage room may be doing that.

If you clear that hurdle, though, you can start figuring out how many storage bins can be constructed in each room. The easiest and least expensive alternative is to ask a professional storage-bin company to survey the area and submit a proposal. There is no cost associated with this, and the company will prepare a layout of with the size(s) and numbers of bins. Rooms too small for storage bins can be used for bicycle racks or to store air conditioners during the winter. Bicycle racks in particular are another source of income for your building, and also help to eliminate obstructions and violations on the fire stairs and hallways.

Once you know how many bins would fit, it's time to survey your residents. This is where supply and demand comes into play. Depending on the maximum number of bins you can fit and the response of the survey, you'll be able to determine the price to charge for each bin. That in turn will help you decide economically whether to use an outside contractor to build and rent the bins, or to hire a contractor to build the bins and then have the building lease the bins directly to the residents.

Pros and Contractors

A storage-bin vendor typically will construct the storage room at no cost to you. They will not only handle construction but also the collection of the storage-bin rents and supervision of the facility. In exchange for paying for 100 percent of the costs to construct the storage room and handle all leasing procedures, the vendor keeps 75 percent of the revenue, with the building getting the rest. This agreement generally lasts 10 to 15 years. You'll have to negotiate whether the building can keep the bins at the end of the lease term so that it can operate its own storage facility.