“He managed to help us with getting more money than we thought we were ever going to get.” – Gennady Rothberg, Coop Board of Directors Secretary
Gennady Rothberg, Coop Board of Directors Secretary
My name is Gennady Rothberg. I’m currently on the board for a co-op; probably the second largest Mitchell-Lama building co-op in United States. We have 1600 units and close to, over 5000 people inside in a co-op.
I became a board member in 2008. Here’s where the problem started: for the past 10 years we had a code violation, a city code violation. A local lower Lama called me and said that all the bricks, any kind of a faulty brick would have to fix or put together. Previous two boards before mine; a war constantly, it was a pull and push whether we should go for full façade replacement or partial. The partial façade replacement had the problem of us fixing them, as is replacement. Or we could have went with a full façade replacement, but the money had to be raised for the board.
Adam Bailey came in, one of our biggest assets for the Luna Park. He managed, in some unknown, difficult way, of getting the city to give us $21 million, which I was ignorant to what it meant to be on the board, but at the same time smart enough to know that $21 million was pretty difficult for any housing complex to come to. The deal was for the $21 million we had to sign a commitment with HPD Mitchell-Lama for 20 years, which wasn’t a bad deal, we thought it was a really good deal. With that $21 million Adam managed to also get us a loan, from a bank, for the next $47 million, so we came out, we had the amount of money that we needed to do the repairs and get out of this loophole of getting penalties. And I will have to say I don’t think it would have been possible without Adam Leitman Bailey’s firm.
Would I recommend Adam Bailey? Yes, absolutely. He managed to help us with getting more money than we thought we were ever going to get. Some came from politicians, some came from different agencies. We also built a gym in a co-op, a dog run. We provided some security, minimum but effective security. A barbecue park, something small, but yet nobody even thought of it before; with the help Adam Bailey’s firm we managed to do it. He also brought, which I think is really important, $1 million dollars for energy bill. Right now management is at work, and it’s of course because of something Adam Bailey brought to the table, on co-generators to heat the water in the housing, like I said, before the housing is 20 buildings with miles and miles of piping and we’re being heated by two boilers. Having those generators will cut the energy costs, and we can heat up water from within the buildings, not have it travel a mile or two.
Having Adam Bailey on our side, with extra layers of law being under Mitchell-Lama program, brought us nothing but positive results. I think you’re talking about a person, when it comes to Adam Bailey, that is full of knowledge and determination, and something that every co-op, especially a co-op like ours, where we are a majority of low income people desperately need that particular style of representation, so I would say he’s highly recommended.