My name is Joe Guzzardo. I've lived here at Park Tower for many years and I love it, both my home and the community I live in. One major 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?
I ran for the board last year. An attendee at that 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 is Harbor Point,
our sister building, 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.
Our board's long term perspective is as monolithic as the 3 sides of our building. They suffer from tunnel vision and show little initiative toward thinking beyond what they've been doing for years.
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.
On a square footage basis, the comparisons are even more stark. There is an inverse relationship between the value of your unit and the assessments charged to it.
If you're wondering why your property values are so low, here's one reason why.
Another attendee at that meeting asked me specifically about "branding" our image, a question which I found odd. A few months later,
during the 50th anniversary commemoration celebration held in our lobby, Michael Parrie, our board president, used that same word in his address. It became
immediately obvious to me that the man who asked me the "branding" question during our meet the candidates evening was a shill for Michael Parrie
to push his agenda. I still remember the gentleman going on for several minutes before finally getting to his question. While sitting there, listening ad nauseum to his sales pitch,
I was sorely tempted to pick up my mic and ask him if he had a question, or was he more interested in making a statement? Clearly, the latter was his goal.
Now that we have our image "branded," are we any better off for that effort?
I grant you that image, public perception, "branding," are important marketing tools, but the bottom line is the bottom line. That bottom line (our assessments)
have a huge impact on the value of your unit here at Park Tower. You're paying for those high assessments twice, in your monthly statement and once again when you sell your unit.
One gentleman, at the "Meet the Candidates" meeting in 2023, asked specifically about efforts to use green technologies here at Park
Tower. I responded by suggesting we utilize wind and solar energy where feasible.
Here's a
project
I've seen at Northerly Island that uses both. We have a fair bit of roof space that can be utilized for this purpose. My opponents at that meeting offered nothing, other than general platitudes.
Park Tower, with over 700 units, is effectively a small town. We should do more insourcing instead of outsourcing for our repairs and upgrades, particularly when considering our ongoing riser projects
and the fact that our building is now over 50 years old. We could have and should have done our hallway project in this fashion, spreading this project out over a longer period of time,
using our reserve funds more effectively and taking advantage of higher short term interest rates to reduce our assessments in the process. We did not do this, but we can, going forward.
We have to be open to change and new ideas. We either adapt and thrive, or suffer the consequences if we don't.
These are some of the things I'd like to consider if I were a member of our board.
We can do better than having a board that merely serves to rubber stamps Michael's ideas. I have several of my own, branding isn't one of them. Our board needs to work a little smarter. Gimmicks won't cut it.
Our board's monolithic perspective is exactly what Michael Parrie wants from its members. He brings in shills to advance his agenda, and I'm sure he tells everyone who will listen, to vote for his choices. If you're happy with the status quo and our high assessments, then vote for the incumbents. If you're not, then vote for me.
I've lived here many years and despite what this diatribe might lead you to believe, overall, I love it. Our diverse Edgewater community, adjacent to
Andersonville, the officially designated coolest neighborhood in the United States, as well as our beautiful lakefront and proximity to amenities, make Park Tower one of the
most desirable places to live in the city. This is great, but we can and should do better than congratulating ourselves while our assessments climb into the stratosphere.