LIDO BEACH TOWERS, P.2

"The thing people were most unhappy about was that they kept getting unexpected expenses — from $2.7 million to $15 million," says current board president Gary Weiss. "I had to meet with the unit-owners and tell them we thought there was going to be another assessment."

Rather than taking out a bank loan or a new mortgage, the board decided to cover the additional expense by levying another assessment, payable in three installments in March, June, and November of this year.

As so often happens on such projects, sharp aesthetic differences emerged. The board had formed a nine-member "color committee" to deal with this delicate issue, and one member wanted a pale-yellow hue like the one the hotel wore when it first opened in 1929. The other committee members wanted The Pink Lady to be pink again, though some wanted a hot pink while others lobbied for something softer, peachier.

A color expert employed by the engineer came up with six color combinations, and samples were painted onto exterior walls. In the end, after some intense debate, the committee compromised and settled on a pink between the two extremes.

"It was a heated discussion because people feel very strongly about color," says Sy Landsman, the lone member who favored the original, historically accurate pale-yellow paint. "I'm not a happy camper, but the majority rules. We'll live with it."

And they'll live quite happily, if early reactions are any barometer. As work on the first phase of the project, the east wing, neared completion in October 2008, the response among residents was so favorable that Landsman felt confident offering a prediction.

"When the job's done it will be back to its original grandeur," he says, "and it will be the crème de la crème of the South Shore."

The Lessons of Lido

Looking back, all parties agree that the source of Lido Beach Towers' headaches — both physical and financial — was that the boards in the 1980s and '90s put off tough decisions. It is also agreed that no amount of wishful thinking — or cheap patching — will make major structural problems go away.

But it's never easy for a board to sell residents on the need for costly repairs. Two keys to success are trust and transparency.

"I've always felt that if you have information, people feel more comfortable if you give it to them sooner rather than later," says board president Weiss. "People are more comfortable when they feel they're being kept abreast of information, rather than having it sprung on them at the end. Trust is a very hard thing to buy back. Right now, everyone wishes this was the way we'd started out five years ago."

Belli, the vice president, agrees. "Doing it right the first time is certainly the way to go," she says, "but you have to be careful to get the whole picture from the professionals so you know what you're getting into. It's not always easy to do that."

As startling as the cost escalations have been at Lido Beach — about 700 percent higher than they were at the outset and likely to climb higher — Belli says the situation is not unique. "I've attended a number of the restoration workshops put on by the Council of New York Cooperatives & Condominiums," she says, "and what I hear from other board people is that restoration costs tend to spiral."

What is unusual is the way the board and the various professionals came together in the face of withering adversity. "[It] took a lot of cooperation among the board, us and the engineer to keep this ship afloat," says Colao of Flag. "This project could have easily been derailed, but the board was outstanding."

There were casualties along the way, of course. Merriweather, the ousted board president, knows just how difficult and dangerous it is to be the bearer of unwelcome news.

"It's a twofold situation," he says. "First, you have to look at the realistic affordability of doing such a big job and then at the consequences of not doing it. If you keep patching, it never cures the problems. Eventually, you're going to have to do it properly."

Present-day photos by Joe Humann.

Adapted from Habitat December 2008. For the complete article and more, join our Archive >>