A Gold Standard in the Heart of Downtown

major projects and training the current staff to continue the vision for this corporation.”

William, the Board’s president, says with pride, “Many of these challenges are turning into our strengths because we have emphasized our weak points in terms of what those challenges were and worked continuously to improve. We pride ourselves in the ability to be agile, to be responsive. What we’ve learned as a team is to work even closer together and to bring out the best possible outcome based on our best efforts.”

The Board’s fiscal successes include: building, mandated ‘quiet hours’. do ambassador, educating the team and residents about the corporation’s rules, policies, and established processes.

• Applying for and receiving an energy rebate which resulted in a 31.81% reduction on their base invoice.

As with any new corporation, the first few years presented a multitude of priorities for the new Board, one of the first being their front-line staff, the other being building a strong eCondo Team. The Board and management worked to ensure that their concierges, the first and last points of contact when residents and visitors enter and exit the building, were not only reliable but caring, loyal and most of all, excelled at customer service, all essential prerequisites for creating an environment where residents feel comfortable, valued, and most of all, at home.

The Board, management, and Elia Associates, the corporation’s legal team worked together to put in place a comprehensive set of rules - an essential instrument that governs such items as shortterm rentals, pets, holiday decorations, use of amenities and, because noise complaints are frequent in any condominium

Shortly after the developer, turned over the building, mechanical deficiencies raised their ugly heads in the way of elevator failures, an inconsistent hot water supply, flooding in some common element areas, and whistling balcony panels which, not surprisingly, lacked a pleasing tonal quality.

Metropia, the developer, proud of their creation, stepped up to assist in reducing the frequency of elevator failures, corrected the plumbing issues, and quieted the balcony panels with the help of their engineers.

These were major annoyances for sure, but as consultant Claudia Damaren, RCM points out, “with every brand new building there are challenges in working together to make sure that the building is passed on properly from the developer, and that all the deficient items are addressed.” Claudia, an eCondo past condominium manager, and current consultant, goes on to add, “The board has engaged me to assist with the transition, with completing some of the

• Re-tendering the mortgage on eCondo’s four guest suites thereby reducing the interest on their payments from 6.45% to 2.89%, resulting in savings of nearly forty-five thousand dollars.

• Negotiating with their service providers to offer residents a greater range of choices and reduce eCondo’s operating expenses.

Now three years old, the Board finally has the breathing room to address the community-building, security and administrative items that were further down their ‘to-do list’. Those include:

• The installation of LCD monitors in their elevators and lobby to improve communication

• Holding many more owner and resident events.

• Special events for pets as the building has a large number of four-legged residents.

• Improving the building’s security by adding additional cameras to the existing system

• and addressing the remaining deficiencies identified in the performance audit, which involves working with the developer and Tarion.

The first thing a visitor to eCondo notices, beside their impressively designed and pristine lobby, is the building’s seamless operation. Concierge staff respond to questions with gentle smiles, cleaning staff glide about arresting intrusive LRT construction dust and dirt, and neighbours hold open doors for their neighbours. All evidence of a well-governed condominium corporation, one worthy of accolades and admiration.

“We aim to be the point of reference for all corporations in building the modern community living of today.” says William who adds, “it is a great honour to have been presented with the Condo of the Year Award. It’s something that we are very proud of.” C V

Quintin Johnstone Founder & CEO Samsonshield Inc./Riskboss Inc.