ECA Budget Town Hall—April 10, 2019

While I am going to provide some highlights of the Elizabeth Condominium Association Town Hall meeting held April 10, 2019, I am not going to reference specific numbers discussed. You as an Elizabeth owner and an ECA Association member can obtain the documentation from the Management Office.

ECA Treasurer Lyle Schwartz conducted the Town Hall and said our financial picture is trending upward—we are aggressively paying down the loan we procured to pay for our window and balcony door replacement as well as our façade restoration. We have enough money to choose our next major project. While this year, the recommendation is for a 2% increase in condo fee, he looks to the future when he thinks it will be possible to reduce our condo fees.

Board Member Mak Dehejia addressed condo fees and our decreasing property values.  He said the problems as he sees them fall into two categories: soft problems and hard problems. In the soft problem category, he spoke of the spirit and atmosphere in the building which is toxic and the fact that we have a bad reputation. He called for an improvement in communications and other efforts to improve our reputation. He added that at one time we were a luxury building, but now unfortunately we are no longer.

Then Mak spoke about how we are always fighting fires (meaning we address problems late instead of pro-actively doing needed maintenance).  He said there should be enough money in the budget for infrastructure and maintenance issues as they arise in order to avoid firefighting.

Finally, he said that the renovation of the hallways MUST be accelerated.  He said it is no longer acceptable for our General Manager to say that the hallways will have to wait for the completion of the garage project.

Board Member Al Muller said he recommends a 1% increase in condo fees. Chris Wemple and Mak Dehejia both pointed out that since we cannot have a special assessment, we are left with only two other ways to raise money for our needs: condo fees and loans. Since we already have a loan, we need increases in condo fees to prepare for our future needs/emergencies which almost certainly will arise because the Elizabeth is an old building. Chris’ and Mak’s argument did not persuade Al who continued to say he wanted a 1% increase.

Despite Director Mak Dehejia’s statement that it is no longer acceptable to say that the hallway renovation will have to wait for completion of the garage project, General Manager MaryAnn Hall recommended that we put off the hallway renovation until the garage project is finished, but tackle instead renovation of the pool area and the fitness center. These efforts would entail closing the pool for two weeks to give it a face lift (including the replacement of the ceiling tiles) and closing the fitness center for two weeks to do the same there (i.e., update equipment, paint, and repair the men’s sauna). MaryAnn said she had put aside a significant amount of money in this year’s budget to buy new pool and outdoor furniture. Her explanation  was that it was too much disruption for residents to have two major projects going on at the same time.

Additionally, our GM recommended that we have a committee for the corridors. She said she had budgeted a small portion ($500,000) for hall renovation this year (FY 2020),  and the same amount in the following two fiscal years ($500,000 each of those years) for a total of $1.5M. Lyle Schwartz said we could allocate the amount currently set aside this year (FY 2020), but,  and instead of spreading the renovation over two more fiscal years, simply allocate $1M in FY 2021. 

NOTE: My understanding is that the estimate from Hartman Design in 2016 was $2.8 million and that the amount could be paid over a period of three years, phasing in the renovation over the same three-year period.  Of course it is hard to say what the cost will be three years later in 2019. What we don’t want is a sloppy job and poor-quality materials which will cause an immediate do-over like we experienced with the renovation that preceded our current lobby done by the Hartman Group. That do-over predated Legum & Norman cost us a lot of unnecessary dollars and ill will.

Also it should be noted that since 2012, we have had two committees work hard on a new hallway design, resulting in three (3) proposals for the hallways, with the final proposal successfully presented at a March 2016 Town Hall Meeting. In addition, we  have an important resource person living in the building—someone who is an architect and designer with Marriott.  He participated on both the Design Committees that ultimately successfully presented a design to the community in 2016, a design that was well-received by all in attendance, no small feat in a building as diverse as ours.

Monique Fridell talked about the need to improve our curb, speaking specifically about the landscaping and suggesting we look into a new updated canopy.

Other topics that came up included:

—the need for hallway renovation was overwhelmingly on the minds of many people attending the meeting.

—the unbudgeted large expense of painting the entire garage. At this time only the patches worked on will be painted.

—the need for  a marketing campaign to correct the poor reputation of the Elizabeth and is also tied in the communications/toxic environment problems we have in the Elizabeth.

---One person commented that we live in an ordinary building, not a luxury high rise. This fact was disputed by several in attendance, one original owner, and others who moved in later.  It was pointed out that the Elizbeth was originally sold as a luxury building and enjoyed that status until recently, and throughout its life has been marketed as a luxury building and is so marketed today.  Even new owners attested to that fact. It was also pointed out that that our neighboring condos also market themselves as luxury buildings, and they are our competition for buyers and renters.

Additionally, it was pointed out that what makes The Elizabeth a luxury building (despite decline of some of these items) is its services: 24-hour concierge, indoor year-round swimming pool, fitness center, large number of guest parking spaces and sufficient parking for all residents, party room, year-round A/C, live-in engineers on 24-hour call, in-unit washer-dryers, and high-end lobby with community spaces like library, piano, large-screen TVs.

Overall, I would say this was a well-run Town Hall meeting where important points were made. What the meeting suggests is that as long as we elect good leadership to the Board who understand the importance of maintaining the building in all aspects—financial, technical, operational, and protecting our property values, —we who live here will have the quality of life expected for this neighborhood of Friendship Heights.