HOW TO REPLACE ELEVATOR, P.2

Once Dornbush and her fellow co-op board members had decided to extend the assessment rather than take on more debt, it was time to turn to their professionals.  Carl Borenstein, president of Veritas Property Management, has managed Parkway House (below; click to enlarge) for six years and has overseen elevator modernizations at a half-dozen other buildings during his 20-year management career. He compiled a list of four consultants whom he believed could assess the job, write up specifications and shepherd the project to completion.

The board hired Joe Caracappa of Sierra Consulting Group. He proposed replacing the old mechanical, single-speed elevators with variable-speed, self-leveling elevators controlled by a microprocessor instead of mechanical relays.  After Caracappa presented his findings to the full board, he and Borenstein proposed six contractors.  Dornbush, based on interviews with shareholders and board members at a nearby building that had recently undergone major elevator repairs, added a contractor of her own.

Borenstein then prepared spreadsheets on the various contractors' bids, and the list was whittled to four. The board voted to hire Century Elevator Maintenance Corp. of Long Island City, Queens.

"You've really got to have a good property manager," Dornbush says, "but it's important for a board not to relinquish responsibility and just put everything in the hands of the manger or the consultant or the contractor.  Board members need to go around the building with the contractor and see where the problems are and understand what they're talking about."

 The contractor prepared a work schedule with anticipated service interruptions, which the board posted in the lobby.  The work took five months and "flowed beautifully," according to Dornbush.

Her lessons? "The board has to stay involved through the whole process, [and] has to know what's going on and why it's going on," she advises.  "Your project manager is vital.  You need qualified consultants.  You want different opinions and different perspectives from board members – but then you need to come together."

 "It went very smoothly," Borenstein agrees.  "Part of it was the luxury of having three elevators.  We also had a competent consultant and contractor, and a board that was always very involved."