Add a story to a 2-story building classified as a 3-family

Hello Community!
While hunting for a 3-family in Brooklyn. I came across a 2-story building with no certificate of occupancy, but classified by the Department of Finance as a 3-family (Walk-up Apartments Three Families C0). It is being used and sold as a 2-family in a R5B zoning. From an administrative standpoint, how difficult would it be to add another story to make it a true 3-family house? Would I need to get a CofO for this alteration?
Any input would be very much appreciated.
Thanks,
G.

sidka

in Dept. of Buildings (DOB) 3 years and 4 months ago

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jimhillra | 3 years and 4 months ago

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Galactica, I’ve been off the last few days, so sorry I didn’t see this. I’ve received your email and will reply directly.

And just to follow up on the post with more specific info for others following the thread, this appears to be a legal 3 family, 3 story building. It’s got a basement and two stories above. It may be possible to add another floor. We’ll have to run the numbers and look into the MDL exceptions.

sidka | 3 years and 4 months ago

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Thanks, Cate!

cate | 3 years and 4 months ago

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The garden level is the “basement” in NYC. The house may or may not have an additional cellar, which is not legally habitable because it is more than 50 percent below grade.

sidka | 3 years and 4 months ago

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Jim, I found your website and sent you an email.

sidka | 3 years and 4 months ago

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Hi Jim,
Thank you so much for your comprehensive response. May I have you email address so that we can discuss this further offline?
All the best and happy holidays!
G.

jimhillra | 3 years and 4 months ago

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I’m an architect, and my office has done a number of these, so I’ll try to help. The R5B zoning summary can be found here: https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/planning/download/pdf/zoning/districts-tools/r5b_diagram.pdf.

R5B has a height limit of 33 feet. I’m going to throw out some numbers, just random guesses really, and you can adjust the numbers as needed to correct the math. I’ll assume your first floor is say 5 feet above the curb. This leaves enough room for a habitable basement below that. Let’s assume the ceiling height is 10 feet, the floor is about a foot thick, and the second floor is maybe 9 feet tall. That means that the ceiling of the second floor is 25 feet above the curb.

If you were to add a third floor to that, then you have another foot for the ceiling thickness, and let’s say another 9 feet ceiling, and then a minimum roof thickness of a foot. This adds 11 feet to the 25 feet calculated above, putting you at 36 feet tall. This is higher than the 33 foot maximum building height. You can adjust the numbers to match your actual conditions and see if you’re lower than this.

FAR (Floor Area Ratio) in R5B is 1.35. Multiply that by your lot area to get your maximum allowed floor area: 20 x 100 x 1.35 = 2700. You said you have 2100 sq ft, leaving you 600 sq ft left. Your math checks out. You have 600 sq ft left to add.

If you have 3 floors adding up to 2100 sq ft, I’ll assume they’re all the same size, each floor being 700 sq ft. You’ll need a front setback to reach the maximum height of 33 feet, so the fact that you have only 600 sq ft works well, as you just step back 5 feet (5×20=100 sq ft). This is exactly what the zoning summary diagram shows.

Density: the maximum number of families you can have is determined by the DUF (Dwelling Unit Factor), which in R5B is 900. Divide the max floor area by that: 2700 / 900 = 3. You can have 3 families total.

Now here’s the tricky part. Because it’s already three families, this is a Multiple Dwelling, governed by the MDL (Multiple Dwelling Law). The MDL forbids the vertical enlargement of a multiple dwelling, unless you can prove that the existing building meets certain conditions. These conditions are too numerous to list here, but suffice to say that it’s a challenge.

We are in fact doing exactly this on an MDL in Manhattan, so it is possible, but it takes a lot of research and preparation before even going to the DOB.

sidka | 3 years and 4 months ago

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Who would you recommend as a code/zoning consultant to help me determine what would need to be done after an inspection of the property? Thanks again.

sidka | 3 years and 4 months ago

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I appreciate all your answers! Current habitable area is 2,100 sqft on a 20x100ft lot. So, there should be 600 sqft left to add? I can see a garden level, parlor floor and a top floor on the front picture. I haven’t had the chance to view the property yet. Therefore, I don’t know whether there is a basement.

resident2 | 3 years and 4 months ago

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To add an extension & obtain a new CofO is going to mean that you bring the whole building up to today’s codes. (time consuming & extremely expensive) Then once finished Your RE Taxes will be reassessed based on the “improvements” & your head will spin! Do not even waste your time contemplating it. The rents will not cover the Taxes!
Does the building have a fire escape or sprinkler system? Does the boiler have a boiler room? These are basic things to look for if it is a legal 3 family. It is illegal to remove fire escapes or a sprinkler system without a permit, so if current owner removed them because a ” 2 family does not require them” … you assume the legal liability.

GreenThinker | 3 years and 4 months ago

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Does it have a basement? The basement/street level apartment isn’t counted as a story. So, it’s probably, Basement Apt, 1st story apt, 2nd story apt and at some point they just combined the basement and 1st story.

Guest User | 3 years and 4 months ago

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In short, very hard. 3-family doesn’t mean 3-story and the DOF documentation has little bearing on the physical structure. You need to know the allowable floor area ratio (FAR) based on the zone for the building and know what is currently occupiable. Adding another full floor to the building will add 1/3 on top of the existing FAR. You would need to file all kinds of architectural, structural, mechanical drawings if you confirm that the lot will allow the additional FAR. I would recommend moving on to other properties unless this one is particularly interesting to you for another reason and you’re willing to engage a code or zoning consultant up front to help you determine whether you could even consider doing what you want to do.

Guest User | 3 years and 4 months ago

string(1) "3"
string(6) "195579"

In short, very hard. 3-family doesn’t mean 3-story and the DOF documentation has little bearing on the physical structure. You need to know the allowable floor area ratio (FAR) based on the zone for the building and know what is currently occupiable. Adding another full floor to the building will add 1/3 on top of the existing FAR. You would need to file all kinds of architectural, structural, mechanical drawings if you confirm that the lot will allow the additional FAR. I would recommend moving on to other properties unless this one is particularly interesting to you for another reason and you’re willing to engage a code or zoning consultant up front to help you determine whether you could even consider doing what you want to do.