The Luxury of the Garage
The bar for “luxury real estate” continually rises in New York these days—wine cellars, heated pools or screening rooms are increasingly par for the course. But perhaps the most coveted amenity continues to be the parking garage, says the New York Times. Their recent tally of listings in Manhattan and Brooklyn with garages included a…
The bar for “luxury real estate” continually rises in New York these days—wine cellars, heated pools or screening rooms are increasingly par for the course. But perhaps the most coveted amenity continues to be the parking garage, says the New York Times. Their recent tally of listings in Manhattan and Brooklyn with garages included a dozen from $1.195 million, for a Crown Heights brownstone, to $18.75 million for a Greenwich Village carriage house. A garage, according to Jonathan Miller, chief executive of Miller Samuel Inc., can easily add five percent to a house’s asking price, and sometimes as much as 25 percent. One Bedford-Stuyvesant resident moved into a Crown Heights four-bedroom brownstone with a garage, which he’s now selling for $1.195 million — apparently having all that storage space for rakes and such resulted in an insatiable desire for the suburban life. The article comes on the heels of a Transportation Alternatives study called “Suburbanizing the City,” which critiques the Bloomberg administration’s policy of requiring developers to build off-street parking with new buildings, which, they say, will add 170,000 new cars on city streets by 2030. Might make the buildings more desirable and valuable, but, according to TA, garages and off-street parking could add 431,000 tons of CO2 per year by 2030.
The Ultimate Luxury: A Garage [NY Times]
Suburbanizing the City (PDF) [TA]
Was it classified as a garage customarily used for rental purposes… property tax code 439… or is it sitting on its own tax lot? I don’t know how many ways I can say it but an attached residential garage isn’t taxable square footage. That comes from the former NYC City Register, who’s a neighbor.
Steve,
I am being taxed for the ground on which the garage sits AND the garage. That would be the ‘Building-1’ for the house and ‘Extention- G’ for the garage designation on my taxes. The ‘G’ was not there when I purchased my home even though the garage was there since the 1920’s. The sellers had to have the designation changed before I closed and when they did the taxes increased based solely on the added ‘G’. They used the increase in property tax as an argument to try to get me to not have it recorded properly so that they could save themelves the expense because they correctly said that it would have been grandfathered-in. I didn’t want any problems though. What if a ‘Steve’ were to come by and challenge the legitimacy of my curb cut? 😉
I also have a neighbor whose garage was a safety hazard and they had it demolished. Once the demolition was reported to DOF and the ‘G’ designation removed, their taxes decreased. I get the point that you are trying to make although I respectfully disagree but I assure you that I pay yearly for that garage.
North Heights,
You’d actually look to see if the driveway was legal not the curb cut. The curb cut easement comes with the legal driveway. The two main places to look would be the City Dept of Finance (DOF) and the Dept of Buildings (DOB.) Depending on the age of your home you can even look at the 1940 tax photos.
If the home is a newer home and it doesn’t conform to the regulations below, the driveway is probably illegal (done without proper approval or permits) therefore making the curb cut illegal.
http://www.nyc.gov/html/dob/downloads/pdf/curbcuts.pdf
If DOF is taxing your garage (not just the property under the garage), you need to have a lawyer contact them.
Was the carriage house legally converted into living space or is it attached to a main house? Is the carriage house now on its own deed? This makes all the difference in the world.
If there were a driveway and/or garage/carriage house there is an easment to access either of them via the curb cut and given the age of your carriage house it was probably grandfathered in. If the carriage house is a legal living space and deeded as such although the curb cut may be present there would be no easement because there is neither the driveway or garage to access.
If it is any solace, most people will not park where they see a curb cut, especially in front of a converted carriage house.
Following up on tanner’s question, where do you look in the city records to see if a curb cut is legal?
Never said that I was entitled to the sidewalk, I said that I was ‘entitled’ to clean it. I am entitled to the curb cut though. The title to my home clearly states as much. Until a city ordinance is passed that says otherwise, that is just the way that it is. Neither of us made the legal curb cut laws but I am definitely a beneficiary of it. Now you could advocate to have the legal curb cut ordinances repealed but I don’t think that you would get much support. Gentile is having a hard enough time getting legislation to stop illegal curb cuts. It appears that if his legislation goes through, the illegal curb cuts will be ‘grandfathered-in’ anyway.
Also could you please contact the DOF on my behalf and tell them to stop taxing my garage?
a question: if you buy a carriage house that is 130+ years old, the “garage” is obviously original and there was an original “curb cut,” so to speak, but it’s highly unlikely that was regulated by the gov. would such a “curb cut” be grandfathered? or at some point was somebody supposed to file for a permit? i bought such a carriage house not long ago, but as far as i or my attny could tell, the curb cut is not on file. (and fwiw, the street is mixed use and parking isn’t a big problem anyway, but i doubt that will remain so given the condos springing up all around me).
I know people in Bay Ridge and Bensonhurst who have cars for themselves and each of their kids! At least we have the space to park them and space for eight more. One vehicle is a hybrid (new) and the other is quite old. I never use street parking for either of them because it takes spaces away from others, even though they are commuters.
BTW, I don’t have a Viking or Aga range or subzero fridge. To each his or her own.