Condops in Queens

Which buildings of this hybrid kind are actually in Queens?

• A large post-war complex in Rego Park that by itself accounts for more than half of the borough’s co-op-within-a-condominium apartments
• Pre-war and post-war buildings in Astoria, including one carrying this classification that predates the 1980s conversion wave the structure is usually credited to
• A Forest Hills tower on Queens Boulevard and a beachfront building in Rockaway Park, which is about as far from the Manhattan conversion story as this structure travels
• A small new-construction building in Astoria, which shows the structure is still being used rather than being purely a legacy

Which set of approval and financing rules governs in Queens?

• The residential side transfers as shares with a proprietary lease, so the purchaser is buying personal property and financing through a UCC filing rather than a recorded mortgage
• Queens lenders meet this structure far less often than the apartment count would suggest, so expect the file to be read slowly and the governing documents to be requested early
• Whether there is a board package at all depends on the documents: some of these buildings adopted condominium-style approval with a right of first refusal and some kept a full cooperative review
• The recognition agreement and the co-op lien search apply exactly as they would in any co-op, because the residential side is a co-op

Which taxes and recording steps apply in Queens?

• No mortgage recording tax on the residential share loan, because it is a UCC filing rather than a recorded mortgage
• New York State transfer tax and the New York City real property transfer tax apply to the share transfer
• The condominium declaration that splits the building did record with the City Register through ACRIS, even though the individual apartment transfer does not
• The mansion tax is reached on far fewer Queens condop sales than Manhattan ones, which follows from the borough’s price distribution rather than from the structure

What pattern does a purchaser meet in Queens?

• Establish what the building actually is before anything else, because the word is used loosely in listings and a Queens listing is just as likely to mean an ordinary co-op with relaxed rules
• Read how the declaration allocates common expenses between the commercial unit and the residential unit, because that split funds or starves the residential budget
• In a complex of this size the managing agent, not the listing, is the reliable source for which approval route applies
• Comparable sales are scarce, because there are only a handful of these buildings in the borough and they have almost nothing in common with each other

What else should you read before closing on one of these?