What You Need To Know

TIPS ON BUYING A LIVE/WORK COOP OR CONDO SPACE — PDF from 4/24/23 presentation

I already have a home, but I need a studio. Can I purchase a share of stock for a Live/Work space to work in?

No, shareholders are required to occupy 300 Summer Street as their primary residence.

How often do Live/Work spaces become available?

This is difficult to predict, as we have no way of knowing when residents may choose to sell their share.

Am I eligible to live at the Artist Building at 300 Summer Street?

Per our bylaws, a qualified applicant to the Artist Building must:

  1. be a practicing visual artist*;

  2. have a recent body of work (less than three years old), documented by either a personal and/or gallery website or other online media sites;

  3. have a demonstrated need for live-work studio space; and

  4. satisfy at least one of the following three criteria:

  • have an education or background primarily in visual arts;

  • have a record of exhibitions or gallery affiliation;

  • demonstrate with letters of recommendation from recognized art professionals that the applicant is a serious working artist

* For the purposes of eligibility for membership at 300 Summer St, a “visual artist” will follow the definition of “art” from Encyclopedia Britannica: “Art, also called (to distinguish it from other art forms) visual art, a visual object or experience consciously created through an expression of skill or imagination. The term art encompasses diverse media such as painting, sculpture, printmaking, drawing, decorative arts, photography, and installation.”

Additionally and non-exclusively, the following fields with aesthetic visual components will be considered: design, video, performance, and conceptual.

Note that while satisfying the above criteria (from by-laws and this guidance) will ensure a place in the Applicant Pool, it is not sufficient to become a shareholding member of the Coop. The building’s Artist Membership Committee may take into consideration other criteria as similarly important to the above, including but not limited to: ability or willingness to serve the Coop in an official or unofficial capacity, demonstrated good-neighborliness, notoriety or achievements, and the committee’s desire to have our membership reflect the demographics of the surrounding community.

How can I be notified when a Live/Work space becomes available?

Subscribe to our email notification list to find out when a Live/Work space becomes available in the Artist Building at 300 Summer. We also post information about available spaces here on our website.

300 Summer Street is a limited equity cooperative. What does that mean?

  • The “cooperative” part of this title means that each member of the cooperative owns one share of stock in the cooperative, entitling the member to lease his or her Live/Work space from the cooperative according to a residency agreement and proprietary lease. Note: Mortgage interest and real estate taxes are deductible, just like owning real estate.

  • The “limited equity” part of the title means that when a member sells a share (that entitles the new member to a proprietary lease for a Live/Work space), he or she does so according to a formula that establishes a selling price meant to both profit the seller and help keep the Live/Work space at lower than market rate over time.

Learn more about limited equity vs. market rate cooperatives

What is the difference between buying a cooperative space and a condominium unit?

Cooperative space: You are purchasing one share of stock in a corporation (in our case, the Artist Building at 300 Cooperative Corporation) that owns the property and you receive a Proprietary and Residency Lease for the space in which you will live. The cooperative is the Landlord. You are the Tenant, Member, or Stockholder.

Condominium: You are purchasing real property — just like a single-family home with four walls and a roof.

What is the financing structure of a cooperative vs. that of a condominium?

These are two very different models of ownership and require very different financing structures.

Cooperative space: Typically, in a co-op building there is a mortgage against the entire property known as the underlying permanent mortgage (at the Artist Building Cooperative , this is called a blanket loan). The monthly payments for this mortgage are paid by the Members as part of their pro rata monthly fees. But like real property, interest paid in monthly fees for Members’ portion of the Blanket Loan and personal share loan, if applicable, and property taxes are tax deductible.

Condominium: No such mortgage exists in a condominium, where each unit is a separate piece of real property and the common elements are owned jointly. Unlike a co-op, there is no single piece of property to act as collateral for a loan of this type. This is one reason why monthly common charges in co-ops are generally higher than common charges in condominium associations. It is also one reason why purchase prices of condominiums are generally much higher than cooperative spaces of similar size, amenities, and location.

(The two sections above are largely quoted from New England Condominium, “Co-op and Condo Financing: A Market Overview” by A.J. Sidransky, April 2017)

Why are monthly cooperative fees usually higher than condominium Homeowner Association fees (HOA)?

At the Artist Building Cooperative, monthly fees include certain costs that a condo owner usually pays for separately. For example, our cooperative fees include payments for the underlying mortgage (considered the first mortgage or blanket mortgage of the Cooperative), property taxes, and heat and air-conditioning. They also include payments for our capital reserves (recoupable when owner sells), which condo fees may or may not include. Read more:

See below for more details of monthly fees at the Artist Building Cooperative: What monthly charges would I pay?

How is the selling price of a Live/Work space in the Artist Building calculated?

The Maximum Transfer Value (MTV) sets the maximum amount that Buyer may offer for Stock Transfer (which entitles a buyer to live in the Live/Work space), paid with cash or combination of cash and second mortgage (“share loan”). The MTV is calculated according to the Cooperative by-laws and is devised to preserve the Artist Building as a lower than market rate primary residence building for visual artists.

The MTV has two components:

  • A. Maximum Seller Distribution (MSD) (Total of Part I-IV of MTV below)

  • B. Capital Reserve Fund (CRF) amount due Coop (Part V of MTV below)

TOTAL MTV = (A+B)

The Amended MTV approved by the National Cooperative Bank and 300 Summer Cooperative Membership as of 9/16/21 is described in the Bylaws MTV 9.5.1 (a) through (e) and Parts I-V below:

  1. Part I: Amount the original Member paid for the 1995 Transfer Value (“Initial Consideration”) with CPI-U adjustments plus 3% yearly interest compounded, plus

  2. Part II: $50 per s.f. plus CPI-U adjustments for improvements, plus

  3. Part III: Principal paid by every stockholder of same space, on all coop mortgages and repair loans since 1995 based on level monthly principal payments, plus

  4. Part IV: Monthly Members Capital Reserves Fund (CRF) contributions, plus

  5. Part V: An amount payable to the Cooperative to be determined by the Directors based on the Live/Work’s current pro rata share of the target CRF as established by the board, not added to Maximum Seller Distribution (MSD)

Due to the unique nature of the cooperative, NCB (National Cooperative Bank) is the only bank currently offering a second mortgage (“share loan”) for Live/Work spaces in the Cooperative. Contact info will be provided upon request. NCB typically requires a 20% down payment for a share loan.

Both Buyer and Seller need to have their own attorney who will write up a purchase and sale agreement with this number as the MTV price. The maximum price is not guaranteed to Seller.

NOTE: There are additional monthly costs, explained in the following section.

What monthly charges would I pay?

  • Debt Fee: Live/Work’s portion of Coop Mortgage or Coop outstanding loans, based on Live/Work square footage (Coop Loans cannot be paid off by individual Members). Interest on all loans paid as part of the Debt Fee is tax-deductible.

  • Members Assessment Fee: Includes common area utilities, repairs, maintenance, cleaning; management fees, trash/recycling, snow removal, master insurance; Live/Work’s heat, air conditioning, and property taxes. The Member Assessment Fee is based on the size of each Live/Work and determined by the Coop’s annual budget. Taxes paid as part of Member Assessment Fee are tax-deductible.

  • Capital Reserve Fund (CRF) Contribution: (Added to MTV when Member sells, recouping monthly contributions over time.)

  • Home insurance (required by Coop by-laws)

  • If a second mortgage (share loan) was secured to pay the MTV, monthly payments on that loan (interest on share loans is tax-deductible)

  • Monthly electric for individual Live/Work, based on actual usage, billed directly by electric company

  • Monthly water for individual Live/Work space, based on actual usage

  • Internet/Cable

Can you give me an example of total costs?

See previous two sections for explanation of costs.

Example: 1220 s.f. Live/Work Space

Approximate Maximum Transfer Value (MTV) and Monthly Costs calculated as of December 1, 2021:

  • MTV asking price: $321,169, consisting of:

    • A. Maximum Seller Distribution (MSD): $265,740 as of November 1, 2021 (Total of Part I-IV of MTV in previous section)

    • B. Capital Reserve Fund (CRF) amount due Coop: $55,429. (Part V of MTV in previous section)

  • Monthly fees: $2,185 (total of 1-3 below)

  1. $827 Member Assessment Fee (Common Expense) for operational costs:

  2. $1,055 Debt Fee for Live/Work Space’s share of Coop Mortgage (first mortgage) and Coop outstanding loans

  3. $303 CRF Contribution

  4. Plus homeowner’s insurance, share loan, and utilities as outlined in previous section.

What other responsibilities would I have as part of the cooperative?

In addition to financial responsibility, coop ownership includes expectations that shareholders will:

  • abide by the building by-laws, proprietary lease and residency agreement,

  • participate in yearly Open Studios events,

  • serve on the cooperative’s governing board of directors from time to time,

  • volunteer for building-related committees

Members are also expected to join the Fort Point Arts Community (FPAC). Membership is available online.

What are the building’s by-laws, proprietary lease and residency agreement?

These are the legal documents that guide the cooperative and its members. If an applicant successfully applies to become listed in our prospective applicant pool, we will furnish the applicant with access to the governing documents upon request or at the Open Houses.

Back to top