Sharing a Condo With a Rental Building? Here's How It Works
In some of NYC's biggest new developments, the condo apartments share a building, or a condominium, with hundreds of rental apartments. We read the offering plans for One Manhattan Square, One West End Avenue and Front and York to explain who runs what, which amenities you share and how the costs are split.
Picture a new NYC tower with a condo lobby on one street and a rental lobby around the corner. Legally, it's often one condominium: your apartment is one unit, and the entire rental building, with hundreds of apartments, is another single unit owned by a landlord. That landlord is your neighbor, a member of the building-wide board and a sharer in some of the costs.
It's a common setup in big new developments, especially ones with affordable housing. Here's how it works, based on the offering plans.
The Short Version
- The building is divided into units: the condo apartments, plus a Rental Unit that holds all the rental apartments, and often retail and garage units.
- There are usually two layers of boards: a condo board for the condo apartments, and a building-wide board on which the rental owner also has seats.
- Costs are split into budgets: shared building-wide costs, divided among all the units, and condo-only costs that condo owners alone pay.
- Some amenities are shared with the renters; others are condo-only. The plan says which.
- When the rentals are affordable, their share of costs can be capped, and condo owners make up the difference.
How the Building Is Divided
A condominium can contain any number of units, and a unit doesn't have to be an apartment. In these buildings, the developer puts all the rental apartments into one big unit and keeps it, sells it to an investor, or finances it separately. Three examples from the plans:
- One Manhattan Square (Lower East Side): 815 condo homes in the West Tower, part of a larger condominium that also holds an East Tower of about 205 affordable rental apartments, a retail unit and a garage.
- One West End Avenue (Riverside Center): 246 condo homes above a Rental Unit of about 116 permanently affordable apartments on floors 2 to 7, plus four office units, retail and a 300-car public garage.
- Front and York (Dumbo): 408 condos in two towers, sharing the block with a Rental Unit of about 320 apartments, two retail units and a garage for about 728 cars. City records show the rental unit itself changing hands by deed in December 2021.
The renters have their own landlord and leases. To the condo, the rental is just one owner, the owner of the Rental Unit.
Who Runs What: Two Layers of Boards
These buildings usually have a condo board, elected by the condo owners, and a building-wide board (plans call it the Condominium Board or master board) that runs the shared structure and systems. Each unit owner gets seats on the building-wide board:
- At One West End Avenue, the condominium board has seven seats: five from the condo board, and one each from the rental and commercial owners.
- At One Manhattan Square, tower owners hold four of the seven seats on the wider condominium board.
- At Front and York, the building-wide board grows to 11 seats, six of them from the condo board.
Condo owners usually hold the majority, but not every decision is theirs alone. Some plans require the rental owner's consent for changes that affect it. For more on boards, see what does a condo board do.
How the Costs Are Split
Your common charges typically come from two budgets: your share of the building-wide budget (the structure, facade, shared systems, building staff) and the condo-only budget (your lobby, your amenities, your doormen).
- At One Manhattan Square, the tower budget was about $12.1 million in year one, and about $3.6 million of that was the tower's share of a separate $3.9 million budget for the whole condominium.
- At One West End Avenue, the condo homes carried about 91% of a $6.8 million first-year budget. The rental wing paid about $299,000, the offices about $148,000, the garage about $108,000 and the shops about $60,000.
- At Front and York, the condo section holds about 45% of the building's common interest, and its share of building-wide costs, about $2.6 million in year one, covers gas, common electricity and water.
Good to know: when the rentals are affordable, the plans let their share be capped or cut if it can't be covered by regulated rents, with condo owners paying the difference. Both One Manhattan Square and One West End Avenue say so, and both also say the boards can't cut services in ways that would trigger rent reductions for the rent-stabilized tenants.
Amenities: Shared or Condo-Only?
The plan lists which spaces belong to whom, and the mix varies a lot:
- One Manhattan Square: the rental tower has its own lobby on Cherry Street, and its residents can't use the tower amenities.
- One West End Avenue: the rental residents have their own lobby and share the roughly 14,000-square-foot amenity terrace, but not the pool, gym or other condo amenities.
- Front and York: the 8th-floor lounges, pool and sundecks are condo-only, but the courtyard, a gallery terrace, the dog spas and the laundry rooms are shared with the rental and run by the building-wide board. The plan warns that heavy use by tenants may make them less available.
Why Developers Build This Way
- Tax breaks and zoning. Affordable rentals can qualify a project for a property tax abatement like 421-a, or for extra floor area under the city's Inclusionary Housing Program. At One Manhattan Square, the affordable rentals are what qualified the tower homes for a planned 20-year 421-a abatement. See 421-a in NYC condos.
- Financing and risk. Splitting the project lets the developer finance, sell or hold the rental separately, and earn rent while condos sell.
- Two products, one site. On a big lot, condos and rentals reach different buyers and renters at once.
Pros and Cons for Condo Buyers
- Pro: a tax break. If the rentals qualify the building for an abatement, your property taxes can be far lower for years.
- Pro: more people sharing fixed costs. The rental and commercial units pay part of the building-wide budget.
- Con: less control. The rental owner has seats and sometimes vetoes on the building-wide board.
- Con: capped shares. If the affordable rental's share is capped, condo owners absorb increases.
- Con: shared spaces. Some amenities and services may be busier than in a condo-only building.
What to Check in the Offering Plan
- The list of units in the Description of Property: is there a Rental Unit, and how big is it?
- Board seats on each board, and any decisions that need the rental owner's consent.
- The budgets in Schedule B: the building-wide budget, the condo budget and each unit's share. See Schedule A and Schedule B.
- Caps on the rental unit's share of common charges, and who pays the difference.
- Amenity access: which spaces are shared, condo-only or rental-only.
- Regulatory agreements for affordable housing, which the condo deeds may be subject to.
Search "rental unit" on The Condo Book Project to find more condos that share a building with rentals.
Common Questions
Can a condo building have rental apartments?
Yes. Individual owners can rent out their condos, and some buildings also include a separate Rental Unit, one condo unit that holds a whole block of rental apartments owned by a landlord.
Do renters share amenities with condo owners?
It depends on the plan. At One Manhattan Square, the rental residents can't use the tower amenities; at Front and York, they share the courtyard, dog spas and laundry rooms but not the pool or lounges.
Does the rental owner vote on the condo board?
Not on the condo board itself, but usually on the building-wide board. At One West End Avenue, the rental owner has one of seven seats.
Do affordable rentals raise my common charges?
They can. Some plans cap the affordable rental unit's share of building-wide costs, and the other owners pay the difference. The same rentals can also lower your property taxes through an abatement.
Where this comes from: the offering plans for One Manhattan Square (CD150185), One West End Avenue (CD140259) and Front and York (CD180223), including their descriptions of property, governance sections and first-year budgets, and ACRIS deed records for Front and York's rental unit. Budgets are the sponsors' first-year projections. This is general information, not legal advice. Updated October 2026.