Air Rights/development

We own a brownstone that is adjacent to a large multi-family on a 50″ lot. Their FAR is 1.26 out of 2. We are concerned that at some point the owner may sell to a developer, and replace the building with an even larger building (not to mention the accompanying construction). Any advice? If we could buy their air rights as a preventative measure, would that be wise? Or better to simply hold on to our own in the event a developer would want to buy them? Also, any sense of how much air rights in residential Boerum Hill (not landmarked) sell for? Thanks for any insight you may have!

Lucy

in General Discussion 7 years and 1 month ago

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chemosphere | 7 years and 1 month ago

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A agree with no-permitz. Developers looking for a teardown usually look for buildings with no rent stabilized units (usually 6 or fewer units), and ones that can be built 3 times their current FAR. This one is already pretty built out. Occasionally there are developers that try and add stories on to existing buildings, even with tenants in place, but that is a PITA for them.
To find what the air rights go for you have to find recent development sites and calculate what the developer paid for buildable sq ft. Because of tight zoning and landmarking there are not too many development sites in Boerum Hill. But in places like PLG and Flatbush it’s about $150-200/buildable sq ft. So for example if the site next door has 2000 sq ft in available buildable sq ft you might be talking $400k. Boerum Hill will be more than PLG.

yudashasom | 7 years and 1 month ago

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Based on your description, I don’t see any immediate risk or a reason to put much thought into it now A building that size likely has regulated tenants and it’s unlikely they’d get away with adding that kind of square footage with them there.

Guest User | 7 years and 1 month ago

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definitely hold onto your own air rights (selling them opens up the buyer to access your other neighbors’ air rights, etc.) but you might have a hard time buying out their air rights unless you’re prepared to pay a substantial sum. i certainly don’t know what air rights go for but in a neighborhood like Boerum Hill that is seeing a significant amount of development I would think the price would be pretty high.
in the end, you have very little control over the actions of your current or future neighbors.