We can do better


I worked on the Mini-market Task Force committee, the group responsible for making recommendations to the board about what do with our now empty former Go Grocer mini market. I learned a few things while working on that project. Over the years, we've had 5 operators running the market that I know of. All of them failed. Our association paid large sums to remediate the problems with at least 3 of those failed businesses, costing us hundreds of thousands of dollars and grievously impacting our assessments. Right now, we're paying around $72,000 per year in property taxes on that space. We purchased the unit in 1999 for $360,000. Buying it required 2/3 of our owners to agree to the purchase. We should sell it, which will also require agreement from 2/3 of our association members.

A 1% increase in our assessments raises about $60,000 in additional annual revenue for our association. Selling that unit will allow us to reduce the inevitable 2027 increase in your annual assessment by a little over 1%. Instead of a probable 6% increase in your assessments for next year, we could get away with increasing your assessments by 5%, while still achieving our financial goals for the year. Selling the unit would also allow us to recoup at least some of our investment in that property, improving our reserve fund balance.

In 2024 we experienced a catastrophic failure of one of our HVAC risers requiring replacement of the entire riser from ground level to the 55th floor. That disaster cost us $830,850 to repair. We had a fire here last winter that required significant remediation, including drywall replacement on the affected floors. I recently learned that asbestos was found in some of the drywall on those floors. Why weren't we made aware of that problem years ago? Asbestos has been a problem for decades, particularly in buildings constructed up until the mid 1980's when it became clear how dangerous asbestos is. Only recently we've learned that asbestos was used in the construction of Park Tower? Why didn't we test for asbestos in our walls when we did the HVAC riser emergency replacement project? We may have exposed the workers who did the demolition on that project, as well as everyone who lived in an affected unit, including myself, to asbestos. Not one of the workers who did the demolition in my unit wore a face mask, and neither did I. Plenty of lawyers have made lots of money litigating this issue and now we're another potential target, while our liability insurance continues to climb.

Many years ago I installed a single handled faucet in my kitchen sink. Sometime later, about 20 years ago, I was told that I had to replace that faucet with a double handled faucet to eliminate the problem with "crossover" issues. We've since relaxed that policy and allowed residents to install single handled faucets once again. Residents in the 11 tier suffered from crossover problems for months that had to be corrected on a group basis since the root cause couldn't be found. How many more tiers are going to experience this problem? Had we followed our own double handled faucet policy, we wouldn't have this problem today. I know we've also had problems with units installing illegal shower sprinkler heads in their bathrooms. My hallway was flooded as a consequence, and I've experienced 2 other floods from bathrooms above my unit since then, costing us thousands of dollars and a lot of inconvenience to remediate. These problems could have been avoided with better oversight.

Why do we inconvenience residents with expired fobs after the fact? Why can't we proactively notify residents that their fobs are about to expire? We lost control of our prior fob system with many fobs unaccounted for. Management lost track of the fobs they had issued. Are we going down this same path again? We can't create a simple spreadsheet ordered by expiration date and inform people that their fob is about to expire?

Why do I have to buy parking stickers for guest parkers? Why can't we go paperless, and have the fees charged directly to our monthly assessment? This would save everyone time and make guest parking a much more seamless process.

Several times over the years my unit was inundated with smoking fumes from another unit. I have breathing problems and I was forced out of my own home as a consequence. It's very hard for security to track down offenders. I'd love to see Park Tower completely smoke free. I suggested this idea to the board after our last fire and Sheldon went into a tirade.

About a year and a half ago, we established a "Green Committee" to advance proposals about making Park Tower more environmentally friendly. I was really interested in installing a weather station on our deck to monitor wind conditions in particular, which, as I'm sure we all know, can be a real hazard for anyone walking in the vicinity of our building. We know that weather conditions in our immediate vicinity can be quite different from official readings. Wouldn't we all like to know the wind conditions and temperature outside of our building? This is especially true in the wintertime, when combined with ice and slush on our streets, walking around here can be downright treacherous, particularly for elderly people. And for the elderly, falling and breaking a hip is a virtual death sentence. My father fell and broke his hip at age 91 and died less than 2 months later. We don't need that kind of grief and liability if we can avoid it.

I purchased a state-of-the-art weather station which we installed on our deck in early 2025. We installed this station in a test location and it worked for a while. Earlier this year I asked about getting the weather station working again and moving it to a better location. I'm willing to pay for this too, assuming the cost is within reason. I presented this offer to the board earlier this year and I'm still waiting. I've heard nothing from Tim Patricio, our building manager, and got nothing but obfuscation from Monique Fouant, our Green Committee board liaison. I'm also of the opinion that we can generate energy from the wind that barrels through our driveways. This weather station would tell us for sure and will improve our reputational standing as a forward-thinking member of Chicago's lakefront community.

One of our board member incumbents, in her campaign pitch 2 years ago, suggested improving communication between the board and our association. I've made some specific suggestions to the board, who responded defensively with lame excuses and blank looks. As a software developer, I can provide real improvements, as evidenced by what you're reading right now. Tim does a good job keeping our PTCondo.com website up to date. Tim, however, was never hired on as a web designer. We once had Tower Talk, a now obsolete hard copy precursor to our website. Why can't we upgrade our current website and security monitoring accordingly?

5445 Sheridan implemented an email based marketplace for buyers and sellers of goods and services, similar to our annual mall rummage sale, making it easier for me to get the junk out of my closets and into the closets of other residents, and visa versa. They don't have to wait for a once a year event like we do. Why can't we offer the same amenity on our website?

We spent around 6 million dollars 30 years ago to reseal the exterior of the curtain wall surrounding our main tower. This expense was paid for out of our reserve fund. This is fine, that is what our reserve funds are for.

In 2010, we spent 1.8 million to reseal our entire curtain wall again. We took out a loan to complete that project. This is not fine, that’s what our reserve funds are for and is a violation of our Condo Declaration.

We recently had the curtain wall inspected on selected tiers. What did that tell us? Our Reserve study is not clear on the projected lifespan of the building wide sealant that was completed in 2010.

I met a gentleman in the service elevator a few years ago, who told me about water leakage from his windows. He told me he complained to the management office about the problem and was told there was nothing that could be done. He also mentioned there were several other units that had the same problem, units that had no such problem prior to the 2010 curtain wall sealant project.

I was informed by an association member that Harbor Point, our sister building, resealed only the panes that had leakage, whereas, here at Park Tower, we redid the sealant on every tier and every floor. As you can imagine, Harbor Point spent much less money than we did to address their curtain wall water leakage problem.

Our assessments are extremely high, a fact made painfully clear when compared to other condominium buildings of our size, age and location near the lakefront. Generally, making things bigger saves money per unit. That's why we build super tankers and jumbo jets. That's why we buy economy sized detergent and venti sized coffee at Starbucks. Why don't these principles apply here? I've looked at several lakefront high rises, including high end luxury high rises along the gold coast. Compared to almost every building similar to ours, our assessments are significantly higher than theirs. Why?

The numbers don't lie. One of my favorite real estate websites, Redfin.com lists the Homeowner's Association (HOA) fees for many of the condominium units listed there. I invite you to research for yourself and tell me that our assessments (HOA fees) aren't high. Compare the HOA fees at Harbor Point to ours. Harbor Point and Park Tower were both designed by the same architectural firm, SCB. The buildings are very similar in size and appearance and provide a good source of comparison for us. On a square footage basis, the comparisons are even more stark.

Board members will tell you that the assessments at Harbor Point do not include heating and air conditioning. This is true, each unit has it's own independent set of HVAC units. Their HVAC units are electrically operated and billed to the resident, just like any other electrically operated device plugged into a wall outlet. They also have heating elements in their ceiling/floors, minimizing heating costs for their residents.

Our heating and air conditioning is delivered via a set of 9 risers adjacent to our windows plus a standalone riser in the kitchen area of each 2 bedroom unit. These risers pump either hot or cold water into our HVAC units. There are 3 on each side of our tower. The remaining 8 facade facing HVAC risers are scheduled for replacement beginning in 2029. As I've mentioned, we've already replaced one of those rises at a cost of $831,000. We will need to spend another 6.6 million in today's dollars to replace the rest. What our board fails to mention is that Harbor Point doesn't even have HVAC risers. That's a 7.4 million dollar project we will need to pay for that Harbor Point never will.

Why did Harbor Point go with individual HVAC units instead of water driven units like we did? Harbor Point was constructed 2 years after Park Tower, I'm sure the designers learned from their experience here and realized that individual HVAC units were less expensive to install and operate than using centrally controlled water fed units to meet their heating and cooling needs.

I ran for the board in 2024. An attendee at the candidates meeting fact checked my claims about our high assessments. Here is a spreadsheet, created in 2023 by that association member, which confirms my assertions. Take a look at the line marked HOA, which is short for Home Owners Association. These are the monthly assessments charged to each unit. Of particular interest are the details for Harbor Point, located in the heart of Streeterville, one of the most expensive residential areas in Chicago. Their units are larger than ours, while offering more amenities than we do and their assessments are lower than ours. How do you explain this?

People are generally willing to pay more if they feel they're getting more in return. That's called progress, raising our quality of life. What are we getting more of in return for our sky-high and ever-increasing assessments and property taxes? New deck furniture? Is that the best we can do? Why are we still addressing 21st century problems with 20th century solutions? These are some of the questions I'd like to consider if I were a member of our board.

My name is Joe Guzzardo. I'm a retired software engineer. I've spent most of my career researching difficult problems and solving them. This is what engineers do. Our board is responsible for understanding the laws and guidelines that apply to our association and applying them fairly and correctly to the issues at hand, not unlike what I did for all of my professional career.

I've worked on some non-trivial projects for Park Tower over the years and was rewarded with indifference, obfuscation and occasional hostility by our board members and management for my efforts. Michael Parrie, our board president, doesn't like me and he'll tell all of you not to vote for me. I have no problem speaking truth to power. Do you want a monolithic board or do you want people who think for themselves and present straightforward, useful and actionable ideas?

Our prior board president, George Pauley, threatened me with litigation if I didn't take this site down. Michael was a board member back then and he voted in lockstep with everything George and David Nicosia, another board member, wanted to do. Our board has 5 members and 3 out of 5 votes will always prevail. Some of their actions were litigated. They weaponized Park Tower's legal counsel and used their authority to ride roughshod over owners and residents while rewarding themselves with special favors. Sound familiar?

Finally, whether you vote for me, or someone else, please vote and tell every owner you know to vote as well. Tim mentioned that last year we barely managed enough votes to avoid having to hold another election, which is expensive and time-consuming. Apathy and complacency are two of our biggest enemies.