Cost segregation on Staten Island

The buildings

Staten Island’s income property looks more like New Jersey’s than like Manhattan’s. The typical commercial building is a one-story retail strip or a two-story medical or office building on Hylan Boulevard, Richmond Avenue, Forest Avenue or Victory Boulevard, set behind its own parking lot. For buildings like these the site is a large part of the story. Paving, curbs, striping, lighting, signage, drainage and landscaping are generally treated as land improvements, and on a suburban lot they can represent a meaningful part of what was spent.

Rental housing is concentrated on the North Shore, in St. George, Tompkinsville, Stapleton and Port Richmond, where older walk-ups and mixed-use buildings stand alongside newer waterfront development, and in garden apartment and townhouse complexes elsewhere on the island. The West Shore, around Bloomfield and Charleston, holds the borough’s warehouses, contractors’ yards and distribution buildings.

Medical offices deserve a mention of their own. A fitted-out medical suite contains a good deal of specialized plumbing, electrical work and cabinetry, and the first question is whether the landlord or the tenant paid for it.

Records

Many Staten Island commercial buildings were built by the families that still own them, and the original construction records are sometimes still in a filing cabinet. Where they are not, the study relies on the closing documents, the appraisal, any drawings on file with the Department of Buildings, and measurement on site. Leases matter more here than in residential work, because they decide who owns the tenant improvements.

Common situations

The owner of a retail strip who has recently repaved the lot, replaced the roof or rebuilt storefronts for new tenants. The physician or investor who has bought a medical building and fitted out the suites. The purchaser of a North Shore mixed-use building bought as it stood. The purchaser of a contractor’s yard or a small warehouse on the West Shore, where most of the cost is in the ground. The services page explains how a study is approached when the building was bought and when it was built.

Site visits

Visits are made by car and generally take less time inside and more time outside than a visit to an apartment house. The lot is measured and recorded along with the building. Retail and medical tenants are given notice through the owner, and their spaces are seen at a time that does not disturb their business.

The page on property types covers retail, medical office and industrial buildings, and the page on multifamily cost segregation covers apartment and mixed-use buildings.

Other areas served

Highbridge Studies works throughout the New York City metro area, including New Jersey: Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, Westchester, Long Island, Jersey City and Hoboken, Bergen County, Newark and Essex County, Monmouth County and New Jersey.