Remember in Seinfeld how you would always see Jerry’s bicycle hanging from the ceiling in the background? Perhaps if his building had had a storage room or a bike rack in the basement, this cumbersome space-saving method that many New Yorkers employ wouldn’t have been necessary.

No matter where you live, we all usually have more stuff than we know what to do with, especially in New York City, where extra space—especially for storage—is hard to come by. As a result, co-op and condo buildings are always on the lookout for creative solutions to their residents’ storage challenges and why so many are converting basement space to storage units, making hooks or racks available for bikes and adding shelves for residents to store their belongings.

Providing individual storage units to owners is an increasingly popular amenity in the city. Extra storage space can also attract buyers, and by charging residents for the use of the units, the amenity can fast become an additional revenue stream for the building.

Design Team

When a condo or co-op decides they want to add some storage space to their building, a good bet would be to call one of the companies that specialize in this service.

“Once they make the call, there’s not much else they need to do, because we design the space based on their needs,” says Al Robbins, owner of Fordham Equipment Company in the Bronx, which designs, manufactures and installs storage units and bicycle racks. “We look at the room area, determine how many people are in the building, and make a recommendation on the adequate size for their particular needs. We submit a schematic to them at no charge and give them exactly what they are looking for.”