A Condo on Long Island's South Shore Tackles a Long List of Fixes
Old cedar siding at Villas on the Bay, East Moriches, N.Y.
Pat Whaley has learned a few lessons in her position as board president at Villas on the Bay, a 42-unit condominium in East Moriches, N.Y.
Built in the early 1980s on Long Island’s South Shore, not far from the tony hamlet of Southampton, the four-building condo was, she says, falling apart. "We are on a beautiful piece of property overlooking a beautiful coast, and our buildings were awful. They were really in deplorable shape." Fixing the problem was the main reason she had run for the board. "We are right on the water with full front exposure, so it had been at least 30 years, and it was a continual maintenance and repair project; we needed lots and lots of work."
Upsizing Management
Once on the board, she was frustrated by its inaction. One problem was that the Villas on the Bay manager — a solo practitioner — “had limited knowledge and resources to handle any kind of project of this magnitude,” Whaley says.
With dissident voices increasing among the residents, she assumed the president’s seat, and one of her first actions was to hire Fairfield Properties in January 2012. “We needed a large management company that had experience doing a project of this size,” she recalls.
Soon, the work kicked into high gear. The board obtained a $1.75 million line of credit from its lender and hired engineer Jordan P. Ruzz & Associates and contractor Brightwaters Building Company.
"As far as the scope of the work and the original amount that the loan was structured for, that came in within or a little bit below budget," says Harry Seid, the manager assigned to the condo.
Replace, Repair ... Remarkable!
That work included not only replacing all the existing cedar siding on the property and around the buildings, but also dealing with the extensive water damage beneath the siding. The project additionally replaced the stairs, the lighting fixtures, signage, the swimming pool and all of the residents’ garage doors, and it repaired the decking area around the pool, as well as added a heating system to it. A fence is being put up now and the project's final phase involves additional landscaping in spring.
"There was a real sense of teamwork between the board and the manager and the management company. Fairfield and Harry Seid played a crucial role in this project; they were really able to walk us through and point us in the right direction, because they've been doing this so long," Whaley adds.
Communication with the unit-owners has been crucial. “We had some dissension,” says Whaley, “but in the end I have not heard from those people. I have lived here 14 years. I know everybody by name. I have a fairly good relationship with most of them, so once we had the plan in place and we knew the roadmap that we were going to follow, we let the homeowners know. In the end, people have been very, very happy. Things have settled down.”
PARTICIPANTS
Pat Whaley, board president
Harry Seid, Fairfield Property Services
Jordan P. Ruzz & Associates, engineer
Brightwaters Building Company, contractor
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Photo courtesy Pat Whaley. Click to enlarge.