Building types in Brooklyn
Converted building condos in Brooklyn
Brooklyn conversions run from DUMBO warehouse lofts to Bushwick factory buildings, and interim multiple dwelling history follows many of them.
What is different about buying a converted building condo in Brooklyn?
Quick Answer
Which condominiums of this kind are actually in Brooklyn?
- Warehouse and industrial buildings in DUMBO, Williamsburg and Greenpoint converted to residential condominiums
- Factory buildings in Bushwick, East Williamsburg and along the Gowanus corridor
- Rental apartment buildings across the brownstone belt converted to condominium rather than cooperative
- Buildings that carried interim multiple dwelling status during the legalization process
What changes about the waiver and the loan file in Brooklyn?
- A conversion that has not completed legalization can carry a certificate of occupancy inconsistent with residential use, which lenders read as a defect
- Rehabilitation tax benefits attached to many of these conversions and they step down on a schedule
- Where the conversion is recent, presale and sponsor holding tests apply as they would to new construction
- Lenders and insurers ask for the certificate of occupancy and the sign-off history on converted buildings
Which taxes and recording steps apply in Brooklyn?
- Mortgage recording tax applies to the recorded mortgage, and the deed and mortgage record with the City Register through ACRIS
- A rehabilitation tax benefit, where one remains, steps down on a published schedule and raises the tax line on a known timetable
- New York State transfer tax and the New York City real property transfer tax apply, shifted to the purchaser in a sponsor sale
- The mansion tax is reached on part of this stock, concentrated in DUMBO and along the waterfront
What pattern does a purchaser meet in Brooklyn?
- Industrial site history matters here more than in Manhattan: prior manufacturing use can leave environmental obligations that run with the property
- Open Department of Buildings items and OATH (formerly ECB) violations from the conversion period are common in this stock
- Loft unit boundaries, mezzanines and ceiling heights are defined in the declaration, and what is common element and what is unit is not obvious
- Where a building sits inside a landmarked or industrial business zone, that overlay affects alterations and sometimes use
What is interim multiple dwelling status?
A transitional status under New York’s loft legislation for former commercial and manufacturing space that three or more families occupied as independent residences during one of the statutory window periods, the earliest of which ran from April 1980 to December 1981. Coverage also requires the unit to be at least four hundred square feet and not in a cellar, and excludes most industrial business zone locations. A building in that status is on the way to a residential certificate of occupancy but has not arrived, and whether the process finished, and when, is what a purchaser should ask.
Does industrial history affect a Brooklyn loft purchase?
It can. Prior manufacturing use may have left contamination, and remediation or monitoring obligations run with the property rather than with the sponsor. Those obligations should be disclosed in the offering plan. Where they are not mentioned at all in a former factory building, that absence is worth questioning.
What else should you read before closing on one of these?
In the glossary
- Certificate of Occupancy (C of O)The Department of Buildings document that fixes a building's legal use and occupancy. Lenders and title companies read it to confirm the property c...
- Open permitA DOB permit filed for work that was never signed off. Closing it usually means a licensed professional filing for inspection or formally withdrawi...
- OATH Hearings DivisionThe City tribunal, OATH (formerly ECB), that adjudicates summonses from most New York City enforcement agencies. Unpaid or defaulted summonses beco...
- Violation (cited against the premises)An agency record that a condition at a property does not comply with a code or rule. It attaches to the premises and follows the property through a...
- Offering planThe sponsor's filed disclosure document for a co-op or condominium, carrying its budget, share or common interest allocation, building rules and sp...
Questions this raises
- What is an alteration agreement?An alteration agreement governs renovation in a NYC co-op or condo: plans, permits, insurance, deposits, work hours and liability. What buyers shou...
- What is a non-warrantable condo?A non-warrantable condo fails secondary market eligibility, so conventional financing is unavailable. What causes it and how buyers finance around it.
Building types
- Condo in a converted buildingA condominium created by converting an existing rental building, where non-purchasing tenants, the reserve fund and building-wide conditions carry ...
- Standard condoA New York City condominium unit: real property conveyed by deed, recorded in ACRIS, with an undivided interest in the common elements.
- New-development condoA first sale from the sponsor of a newly built condominium, governed by an offering plan, often delivered on a temporary certificate of occupancy.
- Townhouse and 1-4 family condo declarationA small building divided into condominium units, where outdoor space, party walls, multiple-dwelling registration and the certificate of occupancy ...
This building type, borough by borough
- Converted building condos in ManhattanManhattan conversions include the loft buildings of SoHo, NoHo and Tribeca, where legalization history and the certificate of occupancy are the liv...
- Converted building condos in QueensQueens conversions center on the former factory and warehouse buildings of Long Island City, where zoning overlays sit alongside the legalization q...
- Standard condos in BrooklynBrooklyn is where most of the city’s new condominium stock has been built, so tax abatements, first-year budgets and sponsor obligations dominate t...
- New development condos in BrooklynBrooklyn carries the largest new development pipeline outside Manhattan, and its buildings turn on tax benefit schedules, presale counts and first-...
- Townhouse condo declarations in BrooklynBrooklyn produces more two- and three-unit condominium declarations than anywhere else in the city, because the brownstone stock lends itself to th...
Have a closing coming up?
Tell us about the transaction. An attorney reads every intake form and responds the same business day.
Legal Disclaimer: This page is general information about New York practice. It is not legal advice, it does not account for the terms of any particular contract, building or transaction, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. This is attorney advertising. Prior results do not guarantee similar outcomes.