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1st floor residential --> commercial? — Brooklynian

1st floor residential --> commercial?

howncreights
howncreights
edited November -1 in Crown Heights/Prospect Lefferts Gardens

Just curious about landlords converting 1st floors to commercial space. Seems like there are lots of buildings on Franklin whose landlords would benefit from it, provided they could work something out with the tenants, and front the capital for converting. Then they could charge upwards of $5,000 more a month. Is that something that's hard to do? Permit-wise?

I saw they were doing a big renovation on Classon (790 Classon, I think) and wondered if they were making the first floor commercial. As they did on the big building on Classon and EP.

Comments

  • joshb
    joshb

    Hmm. That building at EP and Classon always had commercial space. There was a Laundromat in there when I moved in many moons ago.

  • whynot_31
    whynot_31

    The Department of Buildings issues what is known as a Certificate of Occupancy for buildings. It specifies how the various parts can be used (i.e. residential or commercial).

    How hard it would be to convert from a first floor residential to commercial would depend upon on lots of things, and you'd want to ask an Architect or a Professional Engineer, because they eat and breathe this stuff.

    I am neither.

    That said, I do know that the level of pain correlates to which specific building codes apply to the building, which in turn correlates to when it was built and how the property is zoned.

    And have thus concluded it is potentially a big pain.....

    http://www.nyc.gov/html/dob/html/about/faq2.shtml

  • pragmaticguy
    pragmaticguy

    Even to change the inside of an existing commercial space may need an architect plus all the permits and the fees the city loves to charge. Not an inexpensive proposition at all.

  • landlord
    landlord

    legal wise, its easy to do if the building is on a commercial strip

  • eastbloc
    eastbloc

    Many of the residential buildings on Franklin are already legally zoned for mixed use, and have been illegally converted to residential-only with apartments on the ground floor where commercial space is supposed to be.

  • eastbloc
    eastbloc

    Also, for many landlords, who have multiple properties, the hassle of converting a single apartment to commercial simply isn't worth the effort, especially if it is already occupied. Let's say the rent goes from $2k to $5k, but it takes six months to convert the property and get the necessary permits and so forth, then you have to wait for a tenant willing to pay $5k.

    Meanwhile, you've spent tens of thousands on renovations and haven't been collecting rent. The math doesn't work.

  • eastbloc
    eastbloc

    P.S. a C of O change is something that alone could cost you tens of thousands without a single workman lifting a finger.

  • howncreights
    howncreights

    Thanks for the info, y'all. curiosity=satisfied.

  • laura782
    laura782

    The ground floor residences along Franklin weren't illegally converted. In most cases, they existed before the commercial overlay was zoned along Franklin. You'd rarely find a stoop on a building designed for commercial on the ground floor. That said, with an overlay in place, converting to commercial would involve a) legally vacating whatever ground floor residential units exist, and b) changing the C of O. Along with any renovations required, of course.

  • ehgee
    ehgee

    It looks like some buildings had their ground floor converted from residential to commercial and back to residential.

  • eastbloc
    eastbloc

    If you check the C of O's for many of the buildings, you will find they were indeed illegally converted to all-residential.

    That doesn't mean they didn't perhaps start out that way, get converted to commercial, and then back to residential; it just means their CO does not reflect their current use (and the latest conversion was done without permits).

  • whynot_31
    whynot_31

    From what I have been told, many storefronts were converted to apartments between 1975 and 1995, a period in which the city was so overwhelmed with other issues that the Department of Buildings was unable/unwilling to enforce building codes and C of O converstions.

    In 2013, I would not attempt to do a conversion without permits; the DOB has its act more together.

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