52700 Van Dyke
Dear Board Members,
I’m writing on behalf of the Board of
Directors of the Manors at Central Park Condominium Association
regarding the letter you received from Mr. Kirk on Oct.
28, 2011 (attached) about the letter of credit for the final
layer of asphalt paving on our streets and access drives. There
is much more to this story than what was contained in his letter.
Back in 2004,
In August of 2007, the developer ceased
operations at the Manors and deeded his ownership in the project
over to his lender, the Carpenters Pension Trust Fund of Detroit.
In January of 2008, the Manors unit owners
were allowed to elect one of their own to the Manors Board of
Directors, while the Pension Fund continued their majority
control of the Board. I won that election and have
continued to serve over the past four years.
In March of 2009, I asked the Pension Fund
representatives when they would be paving the final asphalt layer
on some of our streets and access drives where the residential
construction had been completed. They responded that they were
not a party to the final paving agreement with the Township and
that they were not responsible for such site improvements. I
then contacted Tim Wood, the Shelby Township Building Department
Director, and told him about our situation and the Pension
Fund’s response. He investigated and called me back to
let me know about the existence of the letter of credit from the
Phillip Greco Title Company, which was valued at $29,600 and had
no expiration date.
I then asked Mr. Wood how the final paving
would get done, given that there wasn’t a successor
developer to honor their final paving agreement and that the cost
of asphalt had more than doubled since 2004. Mr. Wood
responded that when the builder requested the next permits to
begin construction of additional units, the Township would
“ask” them to do some final paving before issuing the
permits. Once enough final paving was performed in this
manner, the $29,600 letter of credit would then be used to finish
the remainder of the final paving. I responded that because of
the housing market collapse, I didn’t think that would be a
viable strategy.
By March of 2011, seven more
“spec” units at the Manors had been finished and
received final certificates of occupancy, all of them after Mr.
Wood first became aware that there was no longer a final paving
agreement in place at the Manors. Around that same time, I
began pressing the Manors Board majority to set a transitional
control date for our Association, since we were long past the 54
month deadline in the Michigan Condo Act for unit owners to gain
majority control of their Association. The Board majority
agreed that transitional control needed to happen, but there were
several “sticking points” that first needed to be
investigated and resolved, particularly the one over how the
final paving project shortfall would be funded.
While this was happening, I again contacted
Mr. Wood and asked if and how the Association could acquire the
proceeds from the Township’s letter of credit for the
purpose of constructing an agreement with the Pension Fund
representatives on funding the final paving shortfall. Mr.
Wood replied on March 8, 2011 that he would have to refer my
question to the Township Attorney’s office for their review
and response.
While waiting for that response, I was able
to negotiate a tentative agreement with the Pension Fund
representatives on the “sticking points”. Assuming
that all proceeds from the Township’s letter of credit would
be made available, the remainder of funding for the final paving
would come from a $350 Special Assessment that - if approved by 2/3rds
of all unit owners - would be paid by each of the 152 unit owners,
including the 47 incomplete units owned by the Pension Fund.
Following a reminder e-mail on Oct. 25, 2011,
I finally received the
response from Mr. Kirk on October 28th. In it, he
stated that the Township’s letter of credit was not being
honored by the company that acquired the assets of Phillip Greco
Title in August of 2010. I immediately sent an e-mail to Mr.
Kirk with some follow-up questions and after not receiving a response,
I sent a similar e-mail to Supervisor Stathakis on Nov. 15, 2011,
which he never even acknowledged.
On January 18, 2012, the Manors Board of
Directors presented a ballot proposal at the Association’s
Annual Meeting requesting approval for a $550 Special Assessment
that if approved, would be paid by each of the 152 unit owners
and used to fund the entire cost of the final paving project.
Even though the Pension Fund voted their 47 incomplete units in
favor of the Special Assessment, it
failed to receive the necessary 2/3rds approval.
Some of our condo unit owner’s comments that night included:
·
“Why should I have to pay twice for the final paving?”
·
“Since it was the Twp. who agreed to temporarily waive the
final paving, they need to help fund it!”
So I will again ask the questions that the
Supervisor and Township Attorney won’t answer:
·
The
Oct. 28th letter I received from Mr. Kirk seems to
indicate by his words “your project” that the
Township has no further involvement or interest in seeing that
the final layer of asphalt paving is completed at the Manors.
Is this true?
·
If the answer is “yes”, then the Township should
discontinue its practice of temporarily waiving final asphalt
paving on all future developments and inform all owners of units
and lots still awaiting final asphalt paving that they are
“on their own”.
·
If the answer is “no” – as I think it should be
– my question is, “what is the Shelby Township Board of
Trustees going to do about getting the asphalt paving finished at
the Manors at Central Park?”
Sincerely,
Mike Grobbel
President – Board of Directors
Manors at