Robert Demeter Being a good landlord is not always easy, as it requires having to juggle several responsibilities at once. Landlords must constantly strive to keep their properties at 100% occupancy, build solid relationships with tenants and maintain their assets in decent condition. One might argue that one of these responsibilities is more important than the other, but the balance between duties is key for having a healthy rental community.
Maintaining a property’s market value and also keeping the tenants happy requires landlords to perform frequent renovations, respect countless city and building regulations, make sure the buildings undergo scheduled maintenance, and generally do their best to keep the multifamily community in safe living conditions.
While there are a lot of factors that make a good landlord, this time we chose to look strictly at renovations. We ran our numbers and ended up with a shortlist of the top 10 landlords in New York City, who have the highest percentage of buildings improved in their portfolio. The names on our list include an executive vice president from Aimco, a VP from Stonehenge and the CEO of Stone Street Properties.
Keep in mind that this ranking is strictly based on the percentage of property improvements, and not the total value of improvements.
Take a look at the visual below to view the top landlords by the numbers. To review the full methodology of the study, please scroll down to the bottom of the article.
1. Janet Giaimo Vitale
With 24 buildings in her portfolio, Janet Giaimo Vitale tops our list by having renovated 70.8% if her currently owned NYC buildings. Vitale filed 82 renovation permits for her 17 buildings and successfully finalized each and every improvement. The value of improvements made by Janet Giaimo is over $1.6 million.
2. Adam Grushko – Vice President, Head of Building Operations, Stonehenge
Landing on second place is Adam Grushko, closely behind Vitale. Having a total of 17 multifamily properties in New York City, the Stonehenge VP renovated 12 buildings, for an excess of $21.6 million—a 70.59% improvement rate. In total, Grushko filled and closed 293 renovation permits, the most in this list.
Currently, Adam Grushko is managing over 3,000 residences at Stonehenge, overseeing all renovations and capital projects, as well as building maintenance.
3. Patti K. Fielding – Executive Vice President and Treasurer, Aimco
Aimco’s Patti K. Fielding receives the bronze medal for having the highest percentage of buildings improved in her portfolio: 68.57%. Fielding owns 35 properties, of which 24 have been renovated. She spent $4.3 million on NYC property improvements, successfully closing 130 upgrade permits.
In November of 2014, Patti Fielding assumed responsibility for Aimco’s redevelopment activities. She is also responsible for debt financing activities, including property debt and corporate financing and she oversees all treasury, LIHTC and joint ventures for the company.
4. Brian Ritter
- 19 total buildings
- 13 buildings renovated
- 128 renovation permits
- 68% of buildings improved
- value of improvements: $6.2 million
5. Stuart D. Goldstein
- 45 total buildings
- 30 buildings renovated
- 188 renovation permits
- 67% of buildings improved
- value of improvements: $4 million
6. Jeffrey Kaye – CEO, Stone Street Properties
- 17 total buildings
- 11 buildings renovated
- 68 renovation permits
- 65% of buildings improved
- value of improvements: over $6.4 million
7. Steven Gautier Winther – Willowick Property LLC
- 16 total buildings
- 10 buildings renovated
- 52 renovation permits
- 62% of buildings improved
- value of improvements: roughly $1.6 million
8. Thomas R. Rohlman – Pine Management
- 37 total buildings
- 21 buildings renovated
- 102 renovation permits
- 57% of buildings improved
- value of improvements: more than $5.2 million
9. Nathan Halegua – Jonis Realty
- 39 total buildings
- 22 buildings renovated
- 98 renovation permits
- 56% of buildings improved
- value of improvements: $3.1 million
10. Edward Ostad
- 34 total buildings
- 19 buildings renovated
- 175 renovation permits
- 56% of buildings improved
- value of improvements: about $4.6 million
Methodology:
This ranking is based on owners who have the highest percentage of buildings improved in their portfolio, and not the total value of improvements. Only finalized renovations were considered in the study. Only permits issued after the current owner has bought the property were taken into consideration. To calculate the total value of improvements each owner made, we added up the initial cost of the permits.
The landlords on this list are part of a company or an LLC, and any personal properties were excluded from the study. Some of the properties have multiple owners, and in our breakdown, we only selected the owner with the highest number of properties owned.
The criteria used for the study was for the landlord to have done renovations in at least 10 buildings in the last 5 years and have an average of at least 4 improvements per building.
Although these landlords made the most improvements based on the properties they own, we did not consider the overall state of all of the buildings in their portfolio, and if they require further improvements.
