Accord Advisory Group

The New York City Cooperative is a multi-family business. Assets from multiple families are invested into shares, bought and sold in a competitive market, and allocated for shareholder use, into discrete apartment units, represented by share holdings of varied size.

The purpose of the Cooperative is to furnish a home for its shareholders. Secondarily, it functions as a vehicle for asset retention and wealth appreciation.

The Cooperative’s Board of Directors is its executive branch. It is elected through proportional vote; and works together with non-family participants in the Cooperative’s business. Non-family, non-shareholder groups include: a management company( Managing Agent); the building Superintendent and building staff (and its labor unions); and multiple external vendors.

Sounds simple. The only problem is in the balancing act. Shareholder families are continually involved in the business: they reside on-premises and expect their asset to function smoothly. Their interaction is 1) with non-family members, who are understood to do the building’s work as employees; but also with 2) the executive— Board members who have, as shareholders, volunteered to steer the enterprise (presumably both from the spirit of communal altruism and to oversee their own investment) .

Stakeholders therefore occupy several positions including: 1) simple family ownership (together with living in the building); 2) family ownership together with management (the Board); 3) non-family employees (staff) ; and 4) non-family employees with management functions (the Superintendent and Managing Agent).

Imbalances occur as a function of stakeholder positions. Most frequently, tensions emerge between the first group and the others because the passive position of owner/tenant has shifted the responsibilities of asset management and the maintenance of asset value to shareholder and non-shareholder administration.

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