Before You Hire a Landscape Architect... What Should Your Board Know?

By Cooperator Studio 12 May 2017 Landscaping

What Should Boards Know Before Hiring a Landscape Architect?

Hiring any type of professional is a delicate process - but when your building or HOA's curb appeal is in the balance, choosing the right pro for the job is crucial to maintaining value and keeping trees, plants, flowerbeds, and other landscaping elements attractive and thriving. Find out a few tips to keep in mind next time your board is in the market for a landscaping professional.

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News

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If you're looking to buy a co-op in New York City, the term "sponsor unit" may have caught your eye while scanning listings. This type of co-op apartment offers several advantages, including the ability to skip the board approval process—a huge relief for many buyers.
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9/24/2026 What New York buyers, sellers and boards need to know about the 2026 condo financing overhaul - Housing Wire

If you’re buying, selling or sitting on the board of a condo in New York right now, there’s a good chance your building’s finances just became a lot more important to your closing timeline. Starting August 3, Fannie Mae is rolling out a significant update to how it reviews and approves condo projects for conventional financing. Together, the changes represent one of the biggest shifts in condo lending standards in years, and New York’s older, densely packed co-op and condo stock makes this market one of the most exposed.
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9/22/2026 Condo owners are getting trapped in homes they can’t sell — as HOA costs and financing woes pile up - New York Post

Condo owners across America are discovering that their supposedly affordable homes may come with an expensive catch: They can be extraordinarily difficult to sell.
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9/18/2026 This Filmmaker Loves Movie Homes So Much, He Built a Mini One in His NYC Condo - Dwell

Filmmaker Lee Leshen has more than a passing interest in famous on-screen houses that are just as iconic as the media they appeared in. He produced the 2024 documentary, The House From…, about what it’s like to live in a movie- or TV-famous house, like Home Alone’s Georgian Colonial, the Golden Girls Palm Beach Regency, or Walter White’s ranch-style home from Breaking Bad. So when he decided to buy his own piece of real estate in New York City after riding out the pandemic in a 250-square-foot West Village studio, he knew it was going to be a creative project, not just a regular renovation. "When I was thinking about my next apartment, I thought, What if you had a nice apartment in Toontown sprinkled with a bit of Pee-wee’s playhouse?" Lee says. "It was going to be more Acme-themed."
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9/16/2026 Former Hotel Bossert in Brooklyn Heights to become Ritz-Carlton condos - 6sqft

A former Brooklyn Heights hotel known for its glamorous past and A-list guests is entering its next luxury chapter. Marriott International, Inc. and SomeraRoad on Tuesday announced plans to turn Hotel Bossert at 98 Montague Street into The Ritz-Carlton, Residences, Brooklyn Heights, bringing the first branded residences to the borough. The project, which preserves the landmarked Renaissance Revival building, will add 62 condominiums and a ground-floor restaurant by Danny Meyer’s Union Square Hospitality Group.
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9/15/2026 Related sells long-marketed Hudson Yards penthouse in decent week for luxury sales - Crain's

A Related Cos. tower that was among the most anticipated (and hyped) of the last condo boom is still searching for buyers after a decade.
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9/10/2026 Brooklyn developer must repay $6M+ to condo buyers after illegal sales - 6sqft

A Brooklyn condo developer who cheated tenants out of more than $6 million in down payments must repay the money and is banned from selling property in New York for six years. Attorney General Letitia James last week announced that the state secured the funds from 425 Marcy, LLC, and its principal, Ezra Unger, who she said unlawfully sold units and collected down payments for apartments in Williamsburg before he was legally permitted to do so. Unger then illegally used buyers’ down payments for various expenses instead of keeping the money in escrow.
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9/8/2026 Co-op and Condos United rally for amendments to Local Law 97 - NYREJ

Manhattan, NY Co-op and Condos United of New York (CCU), a coalition of co-op and condo owners from across the five boroughs that represents the interests of the more than one million New York homeowners who live in this type of housing, hosted a rally at the Southbridge Towers Co-op in Lower Manhattan to raise awareness about the affordability crisis currently blighting the cooperative housing community. Building on momentum following a recent rally at Bell Park Manor, the event brought co-op leaders and residents together to address Local Law 97 (LL97) and the heavy financial burden it is placing on co-ops and condos.
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9/4/2026 What NYC Co-op and Condo Boards Need to Know About Corporate Transparency Act Exemptions - National Law Review

FinCEN has finalized a rule that permanently exempts most domestic entities from Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) beneficial ownership reporting requirements. As a result, cooperative corporations, condominium-related entities, and other community associations organized in the United States generally are no longer required to file Beneficial Ownership Information (BOI) reports with FinCEN, and their board members, officers, and directors generally are no longer required to provide or update personal beneficial ownership information in connection with those filings.
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8/31/2026 Resident at Long Island condo complex says he's "afraid for my life" after mudslide behind building - CBS

Recent rains have taken a dramatic toll on one condominium complex on Long Island. One of the unit owners says he feels in danger, living on the edge of a steep drop-off.
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8/27/2026 NYC’s Condo Pipeline Set to Shrink 11% Through 2029 - CRE Daily

New York City’s pipeline of new-construction condos for sale is set to shrink, with new condo launches projected to fall 11% through 2029, according to Corcoran Sunshine Marketing Group’s 2026 Pipeline report, as reported by Bloomberg. An average of 13,000 condo and rental units will come to market annually through 2029, down from a 13,400 average over the past decade. In total, about 52,000 combined market-rate condo and rental units are expected to launch across Manhattan and the studied areas of Brooklyn and Queens through the period.
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8/21/2026 NYC co-op and condo owners claim they're overpaying property taxes: 'We want a refund' - ABC

While Mayor Zohran Mamdani is taking new action to "tax the rich" on their second homes in New York City, some everyday New Yorkers say they've been overpaying their property taxes and having trouble getting refunds.
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8/17/2026 Pied-À-Terre Tax Won't Deter Buyers Long Term, Developers Say - BisNow

President Donald Trump has taken aim at Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s initiative to levy an extra tax on New York City pieds-à-terre, which is already embroiled in a bureaucratic tug-of-war in the city's courts.
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8/14/2026 NYC Billionaire’s Row tower where it’s raining ‘chunks of concrete’ losing value fast: ‘It’s too dangerous’ - New York Post

As drones circle the 1,396-foot tower and repair work begins at 432 Park Avenue, the 94th floor skypad at the beleaguered building has sold for $22 million, Gimme Shelter has learned — a stunning comedown from its original $33 million ask two years ago, and a $3.75 million gut-punch from the $25.75 million price it went into contract at earlier this month.
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8/12/2026 NYC co-op and condo owners claim they're overpaying property taxes: 'We want a refund' - ABC

8/10/2026 NYCHA Tenants Sue Over Police Access to Surveillance Cameras, And What Else Happened This Week in Housing - City Limits

Two NYCHA tenant associations in Brooklyn accused the city of violating residents’ rights by covertly using a free internet program to give police access to public housing surveillance cameras, according to a lawsuit filed Thursday.
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8/6/2026 Aggressive HOAs are running out of money and foreclosing on more residents than ever before - New York Post

America’s homeowners associations are running out of money — and patience. Amid rising insurance premiums, drained reserve funds and increased safety measures in the wake of the Surfside condominium collapse, the country’s hundreds of thousands of homeowners associations are cracking down on delinquent residents.
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8/4/2026 NYC extends pied-à-terre tax exemption deadline by 4 weeks amid confusion - 6sqft

New York City has given homeowners who received notices that they may be subject to the new pied-à-terre surcharge an extra four weeks to apply for exemptions, following criticism over the rollout of the notices. Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Department of Finance (DOF) Commissioner Richard Lee on Saturday announced the deadline extension, which gives eligible property owners until September 18 to submit exemption applications for surcharges on their non-primary residences. The city began notifying eligible property owners late last month, and the rollout came under heavy criticism from some homeowners who said they received notices despite not qualifying for the new tax.
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7/31/2026 Kings Capital snaps up vacant NoLita lot with plans for boutique condo building - Crain's

A Chelsea-based real estate firm has purchased a development site in Manhattan’s trendy NoLita neighborhood with plans to turn the property into a boutique condo building.
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7/29/2026 Co-op and condo group makes affordability pitch to NYC’s affordability mayor - Gothamist

Rents are not the only thing driving up housing costs for New Yorkers. The Council of New York Cooperatives and Condominiums says rising prices for insurance, fuel and maintenance are threatening to push residents out of some of the last bastions of affordable homeownership in New York City: co-ops and condos.
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