Commercial C of O
This listing caught my eye: http://www.streeteasy.com/nyc/sale/441983-coop-61-eastern-parkway-prospect-heights-brooklyn Because it is huge, and then I read the fine print: “This unit used to be used as [a medical office] and is now being sold as a 4br/2ba apartment! … The property is currently zoned as commercial, and all you have to do is change the c of…
This listing caught my eye:
http://www.streeteasy.com/nyc/sale/441983-coop-61-eastern-parkway-prospect-heights-brooklyn
Because it is huge, and then I read the fine print:
“This unit used to be used as [a medical office] and is now being sold as a 4br/2ba apartment! … The property is currently zoned as commercial, and all you have to do is change the c of o to residential.”
I’m not interested anymore, but I’m really curious about the “all you have to do” bit, which seems pretty disingenuous. We allow all these variances in the building code in exchange for community use spaces (which medical offices fall under, for better or for worse) so it shouldn’t be easy to “just convert the CofO.” We have zoning for a reason.
Or am I missing something?
If “all you have to do is change the c of o to residential,” then certainly the unit owner could have undertaken the job themselves. If I’m reading the StreetEasy listing correctly, it wouldn’t have taken the year this unit’s been on the market, and could have been done for far less than the $200,000+ price drop. Are board and owner of unit even cooperating on this?
changing the c of o is a long expensive process…
If this was a new building, you’d be spot on, but it’s an older building, and doesn’t look like it’s been enlarged, so they wouldn’t have taken advantage of the community facility zoning bonuses in the first place.
So as long as the zoning allows residential use on the first floor, which it likely does, you probably could get the C of O changed.
But I agree that the ad makes it sound very simple, like renewing your drivers license, but this would be a long bureaucratic process…it could easily take 6 months or more. I wonder if the building’s board would let you move in before the space was legally residential use? And I’m sure the buyer’s bank would be thrilled when the situation was explained to them. I think I’d pass.