One of many Tenant Association outlets for sharing information on the conversion plan is a regular column in Town & Village called “Focus on Conversion”.  It carries in-depth answers to questions from you and your neighbors.

Question: Who will handle quality of life and security concerns during and after the conversion?

Answer: One of the most appealing elements of a tenant led bid is that we are able to set out a governance structure that addresses core resident concerns. As part of the conversion, a condominium board will be established that will have elected representation of unit owners from all geographic corners of the property. The governance structure we propose will also include input from those who rent their units. Prior to the transfer of ownership, management of the property will continue to be the responsibility of whoever CW Capital appoints. Today, that is Rose Associates. Once the condominium board is in place, the property manager will be selected by the condominium board.

One question that has been raised at several recent house meetings hosted by Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper residents concerns a significant quality of life issue:  “Right now, we have rules and regulations in place to deal with quality of life issues, yet they are not nearly as effective as we wish they would be.  Overhead parties on uncarpeted floors, doggie doo where it shouldn’t be, lights that take weeks to be replaced –the problems are many and still go unsolved.  Why would going condo make any difference in how quality of life issues are dealt with and resolved?”

Good question. The crucial difference is that the condominium board will establish the rules and regulations covering how the property is run and will select and hire the managing agent for the property. Right now we have to rely on whether or not Rose Associates chooses to listen to the concerns we raise to them as tenants. Our Tenants Association has been very effective fighting for issues we are concerned about and we have used the power of our numbers and the support of our elected officials to win many important victories on quality of life issues. However, there is a limit to our ability to influence and control the decisions Rose Associates makes; we have even less of an ability to influence the degree to which Rose enforces their rules. We have the opportunity to change this if we convert via a tenant-led bid, where the condominium board sets the rules, and hires and directs the managing agent.