Why Are Developers Still Filing New Co-ops in NYC?

Updated Oct 26, 2026 · 9 min read

How Many New Co-ops Are Filed?

We count co-op offering plans by the year they were first submitted to the Attorney General. An HDFC (Housing Development Fund Corporation) is a nonprofit co-op formed under the state's affordable-housing law; we count a plan as HDFC when its name in the AG record says so, so the HDFC count is a floor.

For comparison, 2,816 condo plans were filed over the same years, about 47 condos for every co-op.

Reason 1: Affordable Homeownership (HDFC Co-ops)

The biggest group of new co-op filings comes from nonprofits and city housing programs, not from market-rate developers. They come in two kinds:

• Conversions of occupied buildings. Older apartment buildings, often in Harlem, Washington Heights and Brooklyn, are converted so the tenants can buy their homes as co-op shares. Many recent filings are labeled "Cooperative Information Package" in the AG record, and most of them are conversions.
• New construction. Nonprofit sponsors build new co-ops for first-time buyers. Habitat for Humanity New York City is one of the two members of the sponsor of 839 Tilden Street in Brooklyn and is behind Thomas S. Boyland Street Park Place, and Asian Americans for Equality (AAFE) is the sole member of the sponsor of 656 East 12th Street.

Why a co-op and not condos? Two reasons, the same ones we found in the condop plans:

• One building mortgage. The co-op corporation borrows for the whole building, often from city housing agencies, so each buyer needs far less cash than a condo purchase would require.
• Board approval of every buyer. A condo owner can sell to anyone. A co-op board approves each buyer, which is how income limits and resale rules are enforced, at the first sale and every sale after.

Several of these plans also describe an Article XI real estate tax exemption, the property tax break available to HDFC co-ops, with an opinion letter estimating the taxes.

Reason 2: The Developer Doesn't Own the Land

Most of the market-rate co-op plans we read from the last two decades sit on a ground lease: the sponsor leases the land, usually for 75 to 157 years, builds or buys the building, and sells co-op shares. At closing, the co-op corporation takes over as tenant of the land and pays the ground rent, which flows into every shareholder's maintenance.

Why a co-op instead of condos on leased land?

The plans give two answers.

• The landowner said so. The ground lease for 48 Bond Street says the tenant may not subject the property "to a condominium ownership regime or structure" but may convert the building "to cooperative form of ownership" (Ground Lease, p. 271 of the plan). The landowner decides what can be built on its land, and some only accept a single tenant.
• Condo law and leased land. New York's Condominium Act has its own rules for condos on leased land. The 2007 plan for Azure, at 333 East 91st Street, says a leasehold condominium would be possible only if "the Condominium Act is amended to permit" it (p. 14). A co-op avoids the question: the corporation is one tenant, and buyers own shares, not real estate.

Newer plans show the two structures being combined. At 201 East 23rd Street, filed in 2024, the sponsor received a no-action letter from the Attorney General to form a two-unit leasehold condominium, then convey the residential unit to a co-op corporation (p. 60). Buyers get co-op shares in "a leasehold condominium unit" (p. 6), and the commercial space is a separate unit: a condop on leased land. Brooklyn Point, filed in 2016 with 458 residences, was sold the same way, as a "leasehold cooperative" in the residential condop unit of its condominium.

What the leases say

• 48 Bond Street: 99-year lease from Lauto Group Ltd., expiring March 15, 2105 (p. 5).
• 419 West 55th Street: about 99 years, expiring August 30, 2101. No right to renew, extend or buy the land, but a right of first offer and first refusal if the landowner sells (p. 8).
• The Mark: the plan's term ends July 31, 2131, "the expiration date of the Ground Lease" (p. 23).
• 70 Charlton Street: about 157 years, January 13, 2006 to December 31, 2163. At the end, the co-op can try to buy the land or negotiate a new lease; if it can't, it "may be required to surrender possession" (pp. 6–7).
• 269 West 87th Street: about 99 years, to January 31, 2114, from Riverview Operating Co., LLC. The plan says the lease "does not contain any renewal provision" (p. 7).
• The Independent in Long Island City: about 99 years from TOKA, LLC. When it expires in 2112, shareholders "will not be permitted to remain in occupancy" (pp. 6, 24).
• 1228 Madison Avenue: about 150 years, to February 23, 2167, from Khedouri Ezair Corp. There's no renewal provision, but the lease gives the tenant two chances to buy the land: a right of first offer if the landowner contracts to sell, and a purchase option during a set window (pp. 9, 33).
• Brooklyn Point in Downtown Brooklyn: a "leasehold cooperative" for 458 residences in the residential unit of the CP3 Condominium. The co-op can buy its unit between July 1, 2031 and June 30, 2055, and after the sponsor's prepayment of $1,397,758 the price left to pay is $1 (pp. 1, 10).
• 201 East 23rd Street: the landowner, Snake River Development LLC, is stated to be unaffiliated with the sponsor, and the lease gives a one-time right to buy the land between its 90th and 91st anniversaries (pp. 5, 213).

Not every land lease is a wasting asset. The plan for Pistilli Riverview East in Astoria describes a fee purchase option, after which the co-op would own the land outright and its interest would "no longer be a 'wasting asset'" (p. 6).

What ground rent costs

Ground rent is often the biggest line in these co-ops' first-year budgets. In the 11 co-op budgets in our records with a ground rent amount, it ranges from 2% to 67% of total expenses.

Two things about that rent are easy to miss. It usually rises over time, by fixed steps or by resets to the land's value (see how ground rent goes up). And the plan for 70 Charlton Street notes that real estate taxes the co-op pays on the land under the ground lease "are considered rent for income tax purposes" and aren't deductible by shareholders (p. 90).

Reason 3: Converting an Occupied Building

Some new co-op plans are for buildings that already exist and already have tenants. The AG files them as "conversion of occupied building to coop." Most are HDFC conversions, but a few are market-rate, including three filed in 2019 for large occupied Manhattan buildings: 450 Washington Street, Two Ten Warren and 400 East 84th Street.

The 450 Washington Street plan is a non-eviction plan: "no non-purchasing tenant will be evicted by reason of conversion." It offers shares for 176 apartments in "the Co-Op Unit at 450 Washington Street Condominium" at $400,662,000 in total to tenants and $534,216,000 to outside buyers (cover page). Like 201 East 23rd Street, it's a co-op that owns one unit of a condominium.

Conversions explain why some "new" co-op listings are in older buildings: the building isn't new, but the offering is.

What This Means If You're Buying

• Ask why it's a co-op. If the answer is a ground lease, read the lease summary in the plan before anything else.
• Find the lease end date and your options. A right to buy the land, a renewal option or neither? Work out how many years will be left when you plan to sell.
• Look at ground rent in Schedule B and how it rises. See Schedule A and Schedule B.
• For an HDFC co-op, read the income limits, resale price caps and any flip tax or profit sharing before you apply.
• For a conversion, check how many apartments are still rented and who pays if tenants don't buy. The sponsor usually holds those unsold shares.
• Read the amendments. Prices, budgets and the plan's term change after filing. See how to find offering plan amendments.

Search "leasehold cooperative" on The Condo Book Project to find more co-ops on leased land, or see the newest filings.

Related: What Is an HDFC Co-op? How NYC's Income-Restricted Co-ops Work · Ground Lease Condos in NYC: What You're Really Buying