Building types in Queens
Mixed-use condos in Queens
Queens mixed-use condominiums frequently carry medical, community facility and retail space over several floors, not just at street level.
What is different about buying in a mixed-use condo in Queens?
Quick Answer
Queens mixed-use condominiums, particularly in Flushing and along Northern Boulevard, frequently carry medical, community facility and retail space across several lower floors rather than only at street level. That scale of non-residential use is the borough’s distinctive warrantability and governance problem.
Which condominiums of this kind are actually in Queens?
- Downtown Flushing buildings with multiple floors of medical, office and retail condominium units
- Northern Boulevard and Roosevelt Avenue corridor buildings with commercial lower floors
- Jackson Heights and Elmhurst buildings with community facility space used by clinics and schools
- Long Island City buildings with ground-floor retail and amenity space declared separately
What changes about the waiver and the loan file in Queens?
- Multiple floors of commercial and community facility use push a building past lender commercial-space limits more often here than elsewhere
- Combined with a high investor share, the commercial component makes non-warrantability the default rather than the exception in parts of this stock
- Community facility space has its own zoning basis, and a change of use in that space can have planning consequences for the whole building
- Lenders ask for the commercial square footage figure explicitly, and the answer should come from the declaration rather than an estimate
Which taxes and recording steps apply in Queens?
- Mortgage recording tax applies to the recorded mortgage, and the deed and mortgage record with the City Register through ACRIS
- Commercial and residential units are assessed and taxed separately, so the residential owner does not carry the clinic’s taxes
- New York State transfer tax and the New York City real property transfer tax apply, shifted to the purchaser in a sponsor sale
- The co-op and condo property tax abatement applies only to a primary-residence owner, which excludes the investor share of this stock
What pattern does a purchaser meet in Queens?
- Ask for the commercial square footage and the number of commercial units, because in Flushing both numbers are larger than a purchaser expects
- Medical and clinic uses generate daytime traffic, lift use and refuse patterns that differ from retail
- Separate entrances, lifts and lobbies for the commercial floors should be defined in the declaration, and where they are not the sharing is a dispute
- Community facility space carries zoning consequences, so a proposed change of use in it is worth watching
What is community facility space in a Queens condo?
A zoning category covering uses such as clinics, schools, houses of worship and community centers, permitted at a different density than commercial use. Buildings in Queens frequently include it as separate condominium units. It generates its own traffic and access patterns, and a change of use in it can have zoning consequences for the building.
Why are Queens mixed-use buildings hard to finance?
Two limits stack. Lenders cap the share of a building that may be non-residential, and they cap the share that may be renter occupied. Flushing and Northern Boulevard buildings frequently exceed both, so the building is declined regardless of the borrower and a purchaser needs portfolio financing or cash.
What else should you read before closing on one of these?
In the glossary
- Common chargesThe recurring charge a condominium levies on each unit for building operations and reserves. Real estate taxes are billed to the unit directly and ...
- 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...
- Zoning lot certificateA recorded declaration combining tax lots into one zoning lot for development purposes. Waivers and consents from affected owners and lienholders a...
- CovenantA recorded promise or restriction that runs with the land and binds future owners. Restrictive covenants limit what the property may be used for or...
- Assessment (co-op or condo)A charge levied by a co-op or condominium board beyond ordinary maintenance or common charges, typically to pay for a capital project. It is disclo...
Questions this raises
- 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.
- What is the difference between common charges and maintenance?Condo common charges fund operations only, with taxes billed separately. Co-op maintenance bundles operations, property taxes and the underlying mo...
- Who pays a co-op or condo assessment at closing?A NYC co-op or condo assessment is allocated by the contract of sale, not by custom. How installments and lump sums get split between seller and pu...
Building types
- Mixed-use condo with commercial unitsA condominium holding both residential and commercial units, where the declaration allocates common charges, voting rights and use restrictions bet...
- Standard condoA New York City condominium unit: real property conveyed by deed, recorded in ACRIS, with an undivided interest in the common elements.
- Investor and pied-a-terre condo purchaseA condominium bought to rent out or to keep as a second home, where sublet policy, entity ownership and non-resident tax questions drive the struct...
- 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.
This building type, borough by borough
- Mixed-use condos in ManhattanIn Manhattan the commercial unit in a mixed-use condominium is often large and valuable enough to have real power over the building’s decisions.
- Mixed-use condos in BrooklynBrooklyn mixed-use condominiums line the avenue corridors, where a single ground-floor retail unit sits under a small residential condominium.
- Standard condos in QueensQueens condo stock concentrates in Long Island City, Astoria and Flushing, and the investor share of that stock is what shapes financing and buildi...
- Investor condo purchases in QueensQueens has the deepest investor condominium market in the city, and the consequence is that the building itself is frequently unfinanceable.
- New development condos in QueensQueens new development concentrates in Long Island City and Flushing, where investor demand and mixed-use ground floors shape both the budget and t...
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