The Atelier rents out its roof deck for $5,000 to $10,000. The extra income has helped it reduce common charges.

From the March issue: It might be the real estate equivalent of coupon clipping or small-time political fundraising: Many condo and co-op boards in New York are keeping a sharp eye out for creative ways to trim their common charges and bring in extra revenue for their buildings.

The strategies run the gamut from hosting photo shoots to scaling back on electrical usage, but the goal of improving the building’s finances is always the same.

For example, the Atelier, a 478-unit condo at 635 West 42nd Street, is renting out its Sky Lounge roof deck year-round for private parties. Hillary Clinton and Lindsay Lohan have each already rented out the space, according to Dan Neiditch, the president of the building’s condo board.

The building makes the space available once a week at rates of $5,000 to $10,000 and rents the space out a few times a month, Neiditch said. The revenue has helped the building lower its common charges by 10 percent, said Neiditch, who is also the president of River 2 River Realty. [more]

When development group Metrovest Equities first envisioned the 17-floor Mercury Lofts condominium building in Jersey City, it pictured its restoration leading to a 104-unit tower, a perfect companion to the Rialto and the Capital, the two other buildings in the Beacon condominium cluster. But Mercury Lofts, which recently launched sales, doesn’t exactly reflect the original plans, according to George Filopoulos, president of Metrovest. “We were about 50 percent through the restoration,” Filopoulos said. “What we did was, we stopped construction, we asked ourselves, ‘do we want to have inventory that’s similar to other condos [in Jersey City]?’” [more]

Jersey City’s Beacon condominium, one of the largest historical restoration projects ever begun in the state, will be the first luxury condo in the Hudson River area to auction off some of its units. Twenty-five units in the two-tower complex will be sold at auction June 27, with suggested starting bids of $150,000 to $250,000. The units were originally on the market for between $380,000 and $700,000. Twelve of them will be sold no matter how little bidders are willing to pay for them. Developer George Filopoulos of Metrovest Equities may sell the other 13 units for whatever highest bid comes in or set a minimum price, depending on how the first dozen sales go. Comments

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