BrickUnderground

Condo owners in the 29-story Zeckendorf Towers in Union Square voted overwhelmingly to ban smoking throughout the complex.

Time to add a new smoke-free building to our list of non-smoking NYC rentals, co-ops and condos: Union Square's 647-unit Zeckendorf Towers has become New York City's largest smoke-free condo.

Under the new prohibition--approved by more than two-thirds of the 85% unit owners who voted, according to a press release--smoking is banned both in residential and public areas, including outdoor spaces. A grandfather clause grants existing owner-residents who smoke a three-year interval before their units are subject to the smoke-free policy.

The Zeckendorf vote may be a tipping point.

This over 1,000-square-foot two-bedroom at 560 West 43rd Street has generously sized rooms. The listing even says it's convertible into a three-bedroom.

This over 1,000-square-foot two-bedroom at 560 West 43rd Street is ideal for theater nuts. 

Pros: The building has a doorman, gym, pool and concierge and it accepts guarantors. The apartment has two balconies and the bedrooms seem nicely sized (that's why it's described as a potential three-bedroom). We think the listing's description of the living room being able to double as a basketball court might be slightly hyperbolic, though.

Cons: Located just off 11th Avenue, it's a hike to the nearest subway.

This $875,000 one-bedroom, one-bathroom prewar co-op on West 11th Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenue sports 15-foot ceilings, a wood-burning fireplace, renovated kitchen and bathroom and a washer/dryer.

Striking out on your own? You might want to check out the four one-bedrooms that made this week's edition of StreetEasy’s Most Wanted--the 10 sales listings StreetEasy users saved more often than any others this week. 

Let's start with a one-bedroom, one-bathroom co-op (pictured) on West 11th Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues listed at $875,000. Prewar details include exposed beams, exposed brick, a wood-burning fireplace, hardwood floors and 15’ ceilings. An in-unit washer/dryer rounds out the perks of this space. 

David Berkowitz/Flickr CC

Lessons from a Small Landlord is a new bi-weekly column penned by a real-life NYC landlord whose pseudonym is Craig Roche.

In an ideal world without lawyers, apartment leases would be very short: “Tenant promises to pay $X per month for the use of the apartment, and landlord and tenant promise to behave reasonably.”

Plenty of tenants rent apartments or shares this way, but usually they know each other first. In the real world, for everyone else, lawyers write 10 pages attempting to codify what "reasonable" means.

From my perspective as a small landlord, an ideal lease:

• Is very official looking, making it look non-negotiable.
• Is printed in a microscopic font and full of impossible-to-decipher jargon.
• Gives the benefit of the doubt to the landlord in all circumstances.
• Has been tested in court.

Nick Juravich moved to Crown Heights in 2008 to work as Brooklyn Coordinator for the New York Road Runners' Mighty Milers Program, a youth health and fitness program. That job had him walking, running, biking, and riding subways all over Brooklyn, and he started a blog--I Love Franklin Avenue--as an effort to make sense of his new home.

In 2010, Juravich left NYRR to pursue a PhD in U.S. history at Columbia University, where he is now writing on the history of community activism, education and labor in New York City in the 1960s and '70s.  

He narrowed the scope of his blog from a general overview of not only Crown Heights but all of the surrounding areas and Brooklyn in general to hyper-local community events, neighborhood change, and local issues in western Crown Heights, where Franklin Avenue is the main commercial strip.

ArtJunkie500/Flickr

Is your building cash-poor? Consider selling off pieces of the roof for residents to use as private outdoor spaces.

Q. My co-op building has been hit hard in recent years by property taxes on top of a huge elevator replacement project. Our maintenance charges are already on the high side and we are trying to avoid another increase or an assessment.  

Can you suggest some other alternatives for raising money that would be less painful?

For example, one idea that has been suggested is dividing up our undeveloped roof area and selling it to shareholders.   

A.  You're on the right track, say our experts, who shared some common and not-so-common ways co-ops and condos are building up their coffers nowadays.