N E W S
M A Y 5
L E H A V R E
FEBRUARY 14, 2018
Co-op Conquers Floods and Cracked Sidewalks
By Adam Janos
uLE HAVRE ON THE WATER is a
1,024-unit luxury cooperative in
Whitestone, Queens. It boasts a health
club, two swimming pools, and a tennis
court, but, as its name indicates,
the co-op’s close proximity to the East
River is the crown jewel of its amenities.
Ironically, that beautiful river is also
related to the co-op’s biggest headache.
“The water table is so significant,”
says Steve Young, the co-op board’s vice
president. “It creates a lot of issues.”
A major issue is that the water table
beneath the complex freezes every winter,
which puts pressure on the concrete walkways
that connect the 32 nine-story buildings.
Over the years, that pressure caused
the concrete to crack both on the walkways
and on the covered porticos that
surround each building. “It didn’t look
good,” Young says. “It looked awful.”
The cracked concrete was also a lawsuit
waiting to happen. “If somebody
trips on a defective sidewalk, the owner
of a property adjacent to it could have
liabilities,” explains the board’s attorney
Geoffrey Mazel, a partner at Hankin &
Mazel. “Their sidewalks were in decent
shape from a liability perspective, but the
board was being proactive.”
The cracked concrete wasn’t the only
water-induced problem the board was
facing. “Every time it rained,” says
Young, “we’d have water go right up into
the lobby of the buildings. Every time it
rained – a hard rain or mild – building
No. 5 would have two to three inches of
water. Building No. 2 had more significant
problems.”
So in 2014, the board hired Merritt
Engineering to conduct an assessment.
The engineers advised the co-op to
remove the broken concrete, dig out four
to 12 inches of soil, and lay down plastic
sheets and rocks beneath the new rebarfortified
concrete. This prevents water
infiltration and the ensuing damage from
freeze-thaw cycles. Digging up the concrete
around the buildings also allowed
the co-op to add a series of drains that
addressed the chronic flooding.
Sal Salamone General Contractor was
brought on for the job, which will cost
the co-op an estimated $3 million by
its expected completion in five to six
years. Work has moved at steady clip,
with Salamone completing three or four
buildings per summer in the 28-acre
complex, which has stunning views of
Le Havre co-op hugs
the East River and the
Throgs Neck Bridge.
the Throgs Neck Bridge. Nearly half of
the work is complete.
“Since we did this work,” Young says,
“we haven’t had one problem.” Best of
all, shareholders have barely felt the pinch
because the project was largely paid for
from the co-op’s reserve fund. According
to Young, maintenance fees have
increased more than 2 percent just once in
the last seven years (a 2.58 percent bump
in 2017), even as the complex underwent
myriad upgrades, including an oil-to-gas
conversion. Young credits board president
Stanley Greenberg for the co-op’s fiscal
stability, noting that he has “done a great
job of developing a reserve fund over the
years that’s helped pay for all this work.”
For Le Havre’s shareholders, that has
meant an escape from water damage –
without a drain on their wallets. n
Reprinted with the Permission of HABITAT MAGAZINE WWW.HABITATMAG.COM
WWW.QNS.COM | MAY 2018 | LEHAVRE COURIER 5