Ten Years' Worth of Work Turns Shabby into Chic on Manhattan's E. 16th Street

Fixing the elevators was a priority. "The elevators were having lots of maintenance issues," says Robert Shin, board president for the last four years. "Because they were so old, we had trouble finding spare parts when they were needed. We would have to shut down an elevator, take out the defective part, refurbish it, and then come back and install it. It took a long time. So we decided to get brand-new elevators."

"The Residents Were Screaming at Us"

With only one of two elevators servicing 200 apartments, the $650,000 modernization by Century Elevator, was a logistical monster. While one cab was being fixed, the other one had to carry the load. The result was "constant breakdowns," Kornfeld recalls. "It was a nightmare. Every day, there seemed to be something new. The residents wanted to kill us; people were very abusive, screaming at us. It was very, very troubling."

The second project was an oil-to-gas conversion, costing from $350,000 to $400,000. National Mechanical was the contractor. "The initial hurdle was trying to find out whether there was a natural gas line that was available for us to tap," recalls Shin. "Initially, we were told by Con Ed that there wasn't and that they would have to build one for $500,000. A couple of months into [preparations], Con Ed told us there was a line that we could tap. All of a sudden we went from the prospect of having to shell out 500,000 to having it for free."

Unfortunately, Con Ed bureaucratic issues cropped up "that took maybe about eight or nine months" to reconcile, Shin says.

Finding Funding 

The building funded the work from its reserves, with Shin noting: "We did these projects in anticipation of doing the [$11.6 million] refinancing ... knowing that we would be able to pull some money out" and because of lower interest rates actually reducing carrying charges by about $60,000 annually.

Shin's advice to others embarking on major capital projects? "Allow yourself a lot of time, probably double the time that you would think that you need.  I would say especially for the natural gas conversion, the first thing that they should check is whether a line is available and if Con Ed tells you that it's not, I would challenge that because I obviously it's a huge difference in cost whether one is available or not."

PARTICIPANTS

Ellen Kornfeld, The Lovett Company

Robert Shin, board president

Century Elevator

National Mechanical Service

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Photo courtesy The Lovett Group. Click to enlarge.