It has been almost 3 months from my last letter; way too long. It has been a pretty eventful 3 months though…
Our three areas of focus are keeping everyone very busy.
Ensuring the project stays on track is the first one.
Straightforward enough, or so it seems. Reality is a whole different story. How happy you are is just a matter of what expectations you started with (isn’t that always so?).
Three main actors come into play here. Weather, contractors and association members (all of us). Weather hasn’t helped much during September, but was ok otherwise. Contractors, by and large, have been cooperative, respectful and tidy. Most of us bit the bullet, looked the other way, knowing the importance of what’s being done and that better times lie ahead. But not all. And probably that is my fault. I should have known better. I should have set expectations better. Let’s be perfectly clear. What Atlantis is undergoing is open heart surgery. Plain and simple. Necessary but painful and scary. Two years in the making, identifying items to be addressed, passing the special assessment, bidding out the projects, selecting an engineering firm, contractors, etc. There is no way that you’re going to “like it”. Until it’s over. And then you will probably see the scar for a while. Until we “polish” the rough edges. You’re going to get way less service than you have grown accustomed to, noise will be loud, smell stronger, water supply intermittently interrupted, high traffic and disruptions more frequent, and parking a nuisance. For the lobby and 5th floor residents, your units will be invaded, temporarily, by strangers. They will poke holes in your walls, remove some entrails (sewer pipes) and replace them by brand new ones. Then they will cover those holes back, and walk away.
These last 10 months have not been business as usual, and probably the next 10 won’t either. Not by a long shot. Such is the nature of change. And Atlantis was in desperate need of a huge one to prevent it from sinking into financial and generalized disaster three years ago. You have noticed, or else you have not been here at all. Our small staff is extremely busy dealing with their day to day tasks plus issues related with the project. At any particular day there are between three and five different project-related contractors on site, plus many other unit-specific contractors. Please be patient and lower your expectations.
From now until Christmas all projects you currently see underway will be completed. These include the deck and balconies restoration (hey, pavers have started to arrive), the painting of the blue grid, red triangle, skycourt and yellow balconies on the north side, and the sewer pipes replacement in the first two levels. We might also be able to complete the A/C riser replacement for all units. The gym and tennis court should reopen during November. We will then enjoy some peace and quiet for the last week of this year and the first week of 2014 before the 2 parking garages restoration gets underway during January and February.
Heres what you can do to help:
-Adjust your expectations somewhat lower
-Be nice to our staff, they’re here for us. Really. But there is only so much they can do. If nobody picks up the phone at the management office, leave a message, send an email, or walk your way down to the office.
-Do not throw cigarette butts out your window onto the deck. The drain mat and the membrane (black stuff you can see from your balconies) are flammable. If you have people over, let them know about this in advance. They do not have a crystal ball.
-Pay attention to notices posted on elevators.
-Do not flush your closed toilets if they are working on the sewer pipes in your line. Here is how you will know: You will get a notice under your door, your unit will be visited by our staff, who will close the water supply, flush your toilets backpack and put blue tape on the affected toilets. Guess what will happen (and in fact has already happened several times) if you open the water supply and flush that toilet while the plumbers are working on those pipes in the first two levels? Not pretty.
-Do not negate access to your unit when work needs to be performed. This will only delay the project, and probably cost all of us money in legal fees and project delay costs.
-Reach out to the board if you feel your needs have not been taken care of.
Ok, enough of that, but you might want to take a look at the Restoration Project section for new pictures.
Our second area of focus is keeping our finances in order.
You’ll hear more on this really soon when we address our 2014 budget. The last time we increased maintenance was in 2011. At that time we identified maintenance was at an unrealistically low level (it had not been raised in several years) but the association was still going through financial duress, plus we had passed a $500k special assessment, so we capped the increase to 10%. We will probably do the same for 2014. The board, together with management, has identified this is necessary to start very gradually funding some reserves and to fund ongoing building operations at a realistic level. As I said, much more detail coming soon.
Last but not least, we seek to increase association member involvement.
We have launched this, our new electronic newsletter, which allows anyone to comment on any article or picture, and in some cases vote to express an opinion. Such was the case on deciding the new colors for the tennis court, when a majority chose blue for the court and green for the area around it. You should see the result of that vote during november. You can also “follow” this “blog” so that you get an email when we post new articles. We have tried, as time has permitted, to post lots of pictures of the construction project, so that, even if you’re away from Atlantis you can still stay in the loop of this exciting process of transformation.
The construction committee has been, and continues to be, instrumental in the construction project follow up.
The gym restoration committee is now well underway to define how this important amenity will be enhanced, even transformed i dare to say.
An association member has even volunteered to organize Halloween at Atlantis. You’ll hear more on that soon (i hope before October 31st 🙂
Our bext board meeting is scheduled for November 4th, and attending it is a great way to participate too. I hope to see new faces there.
Alejandro Lopina
The Newsletter at Atlantis on Brickell 