As you were told at the tenant's meeting, you can NOT get a mortgage in a new co-op building. Banks will only give mortgages to co-op buildings that are 51% sold. I verified this at TD bank.
jh35, you were misinformed - and TD Bank is not the lender so they know nothing about the deal the owner made with the actual lender (whom we have no choice but to use until the building hits 50%).
These are the facts: The lender is very confident in the complex and is only considering the renovated units towards the 50% goal - they will consider the building at 50% sold once they sell 28 units. This is not just a theory; it's what I was told directly from the lender and he showed me documentation to prove it. They are providing conventional fixed-rate mortgages at a very competitive rate - I'm already pre-approved and I'm not planning to pay 100% cash for an apartment.
The complex will reach the 50% sold benchmark at about the same time that they reach the "15% bona fide purchaser" benchmark (the 192 units are used for that calculation - they will reach it at 26 units. There are a few rent controlled units that don't count towards the goal).
Part of me wonders if the owner is going to completely blow off our group request and not even bother to reply to it within the 90-day time frame. I think she's confident she can hit the necessary percentages without us. She is under no obligation to reply to our request if she's not interested in negotiating with us. I wouldn't be surprised if she has an investor or two ready to snap up the rent-stabilized units that aren't purchased by the tenants and doesn't give a crap if any of us buy or not. Obviously, we would have a lot more leverage if the 192 figure was used for the 50% benchmark.
There are now 6 listed as in contract but there are at least three more sales that I know of that aren't shown on the website.