Opportunities to generate revenue or to better serve condo homeowners are being ignored by many condominium corporations. With leadership, many condo developments in Calgary could make better use of indoor or outdoor space, ranging from building lockers in an unused sauna area to putting underground parking and a new building on a surface parking lot. In the modest first example owners simply get the storage they need, while in the more grand example homeowners might never have to pay condo fees again!
The starting point is for condominium Board members to look at their development as if they own it entirely themselves. If you owned the WHOLE thing, can you see space that isn't used or a demand that's not being met? Perhaps there are scattered townhouses on land that today would be zoned for high-rise development. If the benefit or profit went entirely to you, I'll bet you'd act to realize that benefit or profit. Now talk to your Board about how you can act as a group to benefit everyone who owns a suite or a condo townhouse home in your development.
Let's first look at the modest idea of creating lockers. Many Calgary high-rise condo buildings have abandoned gym rooms or saunas and sometimes even a gravel-filled pool that was too expensive to repair. If some owners don't have lockers, the condo corporation can build them in that unused common property and lease the spaces for a charge that covers the cost of their construction. I don't recommend renting lockers out month-to-month, as it's more administrative trouble than it's worth. Lease each one for 99 years, take $500 or $1,000 once, and you're done with it. To make clear who has the right to use what, write up a statement of which suites have which lockers, and make it a schedule to your bylaws.
Some buildings, of course, already have all the storage that owners need. In those cases I'd look at candidates to lease the entire space. If it's a ground-floor room next to the lobby, perhaps it can be leased to a business and generate some monthly income to supplement condo fee revenue. Another option would be to create a bicycle storage room. If the unused space is on a higher floor, perhaps it's adjacent to a suite whose owner would gladly buy a 99-year lease and incorporate the space into his or her home. Sure it increases that homeowner's value. It also puts money into the condo corporation's pocket and eliminates the liability of a space that's unmonitored.
At the grander end of the opportunity scale, I see townhouse and apartment condo developments in suburban Calgary that have far lower density than would be built on such land today. A partnership with a development company could see a parking lot replaced with indoor parking and a high-quality rental apartment building. Those condo homes would be greatly increased in value with the improved parking and with a revenue stream that reduces condo fees, or perhaps eliminates them all together.
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