Why are most new developments that come to market these days, formed as condos instead of co-ops?

That’s a great question and one that we get asked a lot from our clients who are curious about the inner workings of the NYC residential real estate market.  One major reason is that condo units on average are more valuable than co-op units.  If a developer (aka sponsor) is building a new development (new construction or conversion) to sell, it will usually be in the best interest of the company to gain the highest price for each unit, which a condo will typically yield.

One relatively uncommon exception is recent new developments that have used the condop structure, where the residential portion of the building is a co-op and the commercial portion is a condo (hence “condop”).  Examples of this are “Astor Place” at 445 Lafayette Street, 70 Charlton Street and 100 Barrow Street.  There are a number of potential factors that influence this decision, but in the case of Astor Place, it went condop because of the building’s land lease (Cooper Union owns the land under the building), which usually requires a building to utilize the co-op (or essentially condop) structure.