In the Lower East Side, we took on the management of a landmarked luxury loft rental building that had an an uninsulated, poorly constructed rooftop boiler room, that led to high energy costs, frequent service interruptions, expensive repairs, and disappointed tenants. In severe cold weather, it was even difficult at times to persuade the boiler service company to make a service call due to the challenging work environment.
After consultation with a engineer to determine what could be done on the roof (and what was permissible according to the NYC building codes) , we had a green light to construct a new rooftop boiler room that was properly sized and well insulated. After competitively bidding the project, we selected a general contractor to construct the new mechanical room, and a plumbing and heating contractor to install six atmospheric boilers and hot water heaters. The timing was a key to the success of the project, which started in the Spring and was completed four months later before the start of the next heating season. The heating plant is worked flawlessly for years and was an asset, not an albatross, when the building was recently sold to an investor.