Dear Owners,
As most residents who have lived at Building 3 since early 2019 know, the past 2 1/2 years have been filled with a nearly nonstop flurry of work to upgrade, update, and correct vast construction defects from original construction of our building.
As all planned projects have been successfully completed, I would like to inform all residents of the following BIG news:
1. Your board and management are working on the budget for 2022. Prices are rising everywhere. Utility bills are skyrocketing and so are our building's expenses BUT your Board has decided there will be
NO INCREASE IN ASSESSMENTS with our 2022 budget. Great news!
**Remember: Your monthly assessments INCLUDE cable tv AND high-speed internet.. at an unbelievably low rate compared to acquiring these on your own. These charges are levied directly from RCN and fluctuate based on taxes and surcharges. Even though Barcelona 3 will NOT increase assessments, there will be a 3% increase passed on by RCN in 2022 as per our contract with them. We will provide these details at our upcoming open meeting about our 2022 budget.
2. WE HAVE NO REMODELING PROJECTS planned for 2022 and for the foreseeable future. If any emergencies arise we will address them at that time. There will be emergency repairs to our old plumbing, repairs to the 30 year old roof, etc. etc. but there are NO MORE RENOVATION PROJECTS PLANNED. I have spent the past 2 1/2 years as condo president spear-heading and personally working on rehabilitating major aspects of our building.
Please go to WWW.BARCELONA3CONDO.COM and review all the projects we have performed and completed and the BEFORE/AFTER pictures. Prepare to be blown away by the way things are NOW compared to the way they WERE. It took hundreds of hours of time to create this website and put up all the content, pictures and descriptions. Want to learn about our building and everything that has been done for the past 2 1/2 years since I've been Board president?? VISIT THE WEBSITE! Our memories could use a little refresh of what things looked like in early 2019. Hint: It wasn't good.
EXTERIOR RENOVATIONS ARE OVER!!
NO MORE CONSTRUCTION
NO MORE PROJECTS PLANNED.
At the end of last July, 2020, we embarked on the most comprehensive and ambitious construction project ever undertaken in the 45 year history of the Barcelona complex: the exterior building restoration project. Fighting a pandemic, a chronic labor shortage and skyrocketing costs across all fronts,
I am extremely proud to announce the project is now nearly 100% complete and ON BUDGET.
I want to personally thank EVERY resident who was so patient and tolerated the noise and inconveniences that a massive construction project site brings. We should ALL be very proud of how much we've accomplished since 2019.
This was no small feat and required an extraordinary commitment of time and effort by those who worked tirelessly to make it happen. The Village of Skokie has performed a comprehensive final inspection of Building 3 and declared that the project met and exceeded all criteria for PASSING inspection. The inspector also told us that the project was one of the finest efforts he has ever witnessed in his many years conducting construction inspections in the Village. I am extremely proud of the work performed on Building 3 to remedy the decades of water infiltration caused by improperly designed and constructed masonry panels above/below all windows on the building. Building 3 now stands apart as the sparkling diamond of the entire Barcelona complex with a magnificent new exterior facade that will be the envy of our peer buildings for decades to come.
I want every resident to understand this project was designed to the highest construction industry standards and EVERY SINGLE ASPECT of the work performed met or exceeded the standards reflected in the plans and specifications approved by the Village of Skokie Engineering Dept. Again, the inspector from the Village highly praised the design and work of our project. He shook my hand during the final inspection and said he never imagined a project as beautiful and extensive like ours would ever take place at the Barcelona.
Food for thought: When our Board and management sent this project to multiple large construction companies to obtain bids, all of them said the project would take approximately 2 years to complete...and that was BEFORE the Covid 19 pandemic began! How much time would have been added and how much cost would have been added if these companies did the project?? We just completed this job in 8 months (3 1/2 months in 2020 and 4 1/2 months in 2021) AND performed a FAR greater scope work than originally estimated at the beginning of the project because more far greater defects were exposed as we opened up more panels. For a project of this magnitude to be delivered ON BUDGET and EARLY and without a single injury is absolutely unheard of.
We could not have performed this project as efficiently or brought it in at budget without the services provided by our management company and Gregg Rithmiller. From time to time I hear some unit owners grumble about not getting a fast call back from Homeowner Services for a little item here and there, but absolutely realize the magnitude of what Gregg and Heil and Heil did for us with this project. They handled ALL of the payouts to contractors, acquired bids from contractors and handled insurance certificates...THIS work they did would have cost an extraordinary amount of money if another management company did it. So, please cut them a little slack and understand the value of Gregg's contribution to this building. Most of you will never understand how much work goes into managing a condo building like ours, especially with our aging plumbing and electrical systems and all the calls management gets ALL the time. We would absolutely NEVER get the same kind of personal attention from another management company that we get from Heil and Heil. Please understand this and the fact that no management company would deal with the nonstop issues that they would get called for on a daily basis.
In closing, our accomplishment with the exterior project is honestly nothing short of a miracle. Let's celebrate and not allow nonsensical gossip and misinformation to dampen our success.-- I've recently learned there is some misinformation being spread by a certain individual in our building. This will be addressed in a follow-up email in the near future. As for now, the rumors are far too idiotic to sully this beautiful email with all the extremely good news I just described.
No one is perfect and you can't please all the people all of the time, but I've invested 2 1/2 years of my life, full time, to transform this building from an aging, dilapidated building into a showplace. Having so many residents thank me for all the time and effort I've taken to elevate the quality of life in our building and protect our property values has been humbling. I thank all of you for your kind words and 'thank you' notes and look forward to some wonderful years ahead.
Wishing all residents a healthy and joyous Fall,
Goran Yordanoff, President Barcelona Building 3 and Master
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