Category — Co-op Storage

How low can you go? That’s a question that co-op apartment owners at 791 Park Avenue are probably asking themselves following buyer Gary Gelman’s purchase of a fifth-floor cooperative in the building located at East 74th Street.


Gelman knocked $820,000 off of the apartment’s original $9.95 million list price, paying $9.175 million.

Those are some great negotiation skills, especially when the sellers are Bear Stearns Director Daniel Keating and his wife Janet Keating. Looks like the investment bank’s debacle may have led the Keatings to quickly sell their Park Avenue co-op for eight-figures, and relocate to a 4-figure rental apartment in Waterside Plaza along the East River.

The sellers’ listing agent was Halstead broker Nancy Coffey (inset).

The apartment is huge. It has 4-bedrooms and 4½ bathrooms with approximately 3,700 square feet over eleven rooms. Monthly maintenance charges were $3,800 at the time it was on the market. The 14-floor pre-war co-op is pet-friendly, has its own gym, and storage space for shareholders.

Fancy kitchen accoutrements include a culinary space chock full of high-end appliances, a butler’s pantry, custom cabinetry, and a breakfast nook.

Did the buyer need a room for his books or to smoke a stogie after a hard day of making money? He’s got it: one of the bedrooms was transformed into a wood-paneled library.

William and Stacey Geller just paid $25,705 for a storage room in their co-op at 49 West 72nd Street, according to New York City public records. That sounds like a pretty swell room for storing your prized possessions (or unwanted wedding gifts).

The majority of New Yorkers have something of a love-hate relationship with their apartments. The living space may be small, but they figure they can adapt by throwing out years worth of junk — first their spouse’s or significant other’s; and only as a last resort, their own.

When that fails, they dream (sigh) about buying a larger apartment, then start regularly buying Lotto tickets in the hope of financing their lust for more space.

At this point, they start to deal with reality and explore renting a storage bin on a monthly basis. It’s economical and offers flexibility for a price.

Smart cooperatives take the “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em” approach by converting basement space into storage rooms which they then lease out to shareholders each month. The renovations pay for themselves very soon, and it then becomes a steady income stream for the co-op’s “rainy day” fund to help defray the costs of fixing the roof or upgrading the boiler in a few years.

This usually poses a logistical challenge, since there are rarely enough storage bins for every apartment owner. Who gets first choice? Who gets excluded? What process will the Co-op Board use to try and resolve the dilemma in a seemingly equitable manner?

That’s when buying your own storage space outright seems to make sense. It’s extra space that you can add on to your square footage when it’s time to sell your apartment. Your apartment storage could even start a bidding war for that coveted extra space!