Why Tackling Two Projects At Once Is a Smart Strategy

It may seem counter-intuitive, but co-op and condo boards can save money by doing major building repair projects back-to-back. Leon Geoxavier, senior project manager at Howard Zimmerman Architects, and Evan Petkanas, president of STONE Engineering & Architecture, are here to tell us how one building facing both a roof replacement and facade repairs did just that. The price tag was hefty, but smaller than if the projects had been done separately. Leon Geoxavier and Evan Petkanas are interviewed by Bill Morris for Habitat Magazine.

Thanks for listening. Subscribe to this podcast for more stories on how New York co-ops and condos have solved a myriad of problems. Brought to you by Habitat Magazine, the "bible" that hundreds of board directors turn to every day!

Transcript

[00:00:00] Bill Morris: Welcome to Problem Solved, Habitat's conversation about challenges facing New York co-op and condo boards, and how their professionals have helped them overcome those challenges.  I’m Bill Morris. With me today are Evan Petkanas, president of Stone Engineering, and Leon Geoxavier, formerly with Stone Engineering and now with Howard Zimmerman Architects & Engineers.

Leon, let's start with you. The pandemic has caused a lot of problems for a lot of professionals. Have you had any particular experiences or any odd problems caused by the pandemic?

[00:00:30] Leon Geoxavier: We started projects that began in maybe 2018, 2019, that started as terrace replacement or roof replacement projects and got delayed. And, back in 2018, 2019, we thought about the ninth cycle of the Facade Inspection & Repair Program [FISP] as a project for the future, but that future started to come up quickly. We had started having conversations with some of our clients about how to tackle this upcoming cycle and if it was going to need to overlap with the projects we were currently working on. 

[00:01:06] Bill Morris: What did you decide? You had the scaffolding up probably for that roof job. Did you just overlap the projects and do them both at once or did you hold off on one ?

[00:01:14] Leon Geoxavier: We started to look at the calendar and we started to say working backwards, if we have to file by this date, we really should do the exterior repairs by that date. And it really saves a client money in terms of mobilization, sidewalk shed, scaffolding, permitting in some cases. We said to the board, maybe we can do the exterior FISP repair program in conjunction with the roof program, find a way to intertwine the two using the same contractor and not having to deploy the sidewalk shed or get a separate permit.

The downside of that, of course, is that's a bigger price tag for a board to manage all at once, so that was definitely a consideration in terms of the pricing. Another issue was the bidding, because in a separate world we might have gone through a competitive bidding process, but in this case, we were trying to use the same contractor.

[00:02:11] Bill Morris: So you stuck with the same contractor. He did the roof replacement and the facade work. Did that cause a lot more disruption for residents of the buildings? Was that something on the board's mind as they were mulling over how to tackle this? 

[00:02:22] Leon Geoxavier: Absolutely. In fact, our hearts went out to the terrace owners who were going to be without terraces. First we had said it was gonna be a few months for a terrace replacement, and that extended to over a year because of the pandemic. Now we were saying we need to have scaffolding set up on your terrace in order to do the exterior, so it's going to be even longer. The terrace owners bore the brunt, but as part of that, looking at the big picture, we were trying to say, Look, this prevents us from coming back again. This prevents us from disrupting you twice. This prevents us from having to give you a week’s use of your terraces only to take it back down the road. We can be out of everyone's way sooner. 

[00:03:03] Bill Morris: Let me ask you a related question. Was the Climate Mobilization Act a factor in all these plans? Because I'm thinking that a new roof on a post-war building can help a building cut its carbon emissions. Was that part of the conversation you were having with this board? 

[00:03:18] Leon Geoxavier: Yes. With a lot of terrace and roof projects lately, insulation has been a really big concern. An older building maybe didn't have insulation at all, or if it did, it was modest. And now because we want to comply with better energy efficiency, that means more insulation or more expensive, thicker, insulation. 

And that causes a little bit of a domino problem of what do we do with the terrace doors? Do they need to be raised? What do we do with the railings? Do they need to be raised? What do we do with the drains? And how do we accommodate a thick set of insulation and drainage mats around them? Yes, the Act has been an ongoing integration with our current projects.

[00:03:55] Bill Morris: In closing, we can hope that the pandemic is going to be history one of these days. But all that aside, based on this experience you've had with this double project, what kind of advice would you give to a co-op or condo board client of yours who's looking at physical repairs to their building? Is there anything you've learned from this or just your general work? Evan? 

[00:04:17] Evan Petkanas: To answer that question from a long-term planning and compliance perspective, the owners, representatives, board members all need to plan far in advance for such capital projects. Between the hurdles you have to get through with the Department of Buildings on the application process, and then the contractor contract negotiation process and then ultimately raising the money to build the job. The other hurdle we went through on a couple of occasions with several projects is adjoining buildings and getting clearance to work over them or beside them. It's become a lot more difficult. The puzzle of the maze that you have to go through is a lot more complex. 

[00:05:05] Bill Morris: Evan and Leon, that's a very informative interview and thanks so much.