Believe it or not, the Empire State Building in New York City took exactly one year to build from groundbreaking to ribbon cutting. This was back during the Great Depression when it was vitally important to complete a towering project like this to provide hope and inspiration to the entire nation. Today, every city’s skyline is populated with high rise buildings. Many of these buildings are used for businesses, but there is an equal and growing amount of high rises all across the nation that have been built exclusively for residential living.
As with condominium complexes and gated housing, these high rises are active communities managed by a board of volunteers or a community association management company charged with servicing the common needs of the residents.
Understanding the High Rise Owner
To understand the management needs of a high rise community, you first have to appreciate the type of owners who have chosen this distinct lifestyle.
A general population high rise can house working professionals, students, families, singles, and couples. It is the kind of vibrant community that might feel extremely divergent in terms of its population, but in reality the residents are just like every other community of like-minded individuals: They want to make sure their homes are safe, comfortable, and that they are able to maintain a quality of life.
The high rise HOA plays a key role in helping resident achieve all of those goals.
Most high rise residents move into these environments to “downsize” their lives. They could be coming from a bigger home in the suburbs and have strived to minimize their surroundings. One thing is for sure, they will not be missing the upkeep of lawns, roofs, or driveways. Depending on the neighborhood, they might also be forgoing driving in favor of strolling to shops and dining.
On some level, this makes them a much more active type of community.
There are other high rises which are targeted to specific clientele such as the more affluent or retirees. Both types of residents will be expecting certain accommodations to be met in order to promote their version of a standard of living.
Affluent residents will be looking for amenities such as valet and concierge service.
Retirees might prefer access to daily activities that help promote healthy social interactions.
Young professionals may not be heard from at all!
These wide range of characteristics must be acknowledged by the acting HOA and association manager.
Special High Rise HOA Responsibilities
Unlike a condo complex, a high rise is going to have many more residents as part of the community. This means all the typical common areas such as parking, places to hold parties (which should be used only through reservation and managed by a committee or management company representative) and storage will be exponentially increased.
There are other areas that need special attention in a high rise such as:
Understanding the High Rise Owner
To understand the management needs of a high rise community, you first have to appreciate the type of owners who have chosen this distinct lifestyle.
A general population high rise can house working professionals, students, families, singles, and couples. It is the kind of vibrant community that might feel extremely divergent in terms of its population, but in reality the residents are just like every other community of like-minded individuals: They want to make sure their homes are safe, comfortable, and that they are able to maintain a quality of life.
The high rise HOA plays a key role in helping resident achieve all of those goals.
Most high rise residents move into these environments to “downsize” their lives. They could be coming from a bigger home in the suburbs and have strived to minimize their surroundings. One thing is for sure, they will not be missing the upkeep of lawns, roofs, or driveways. Depending on the neighborhood, they might also be forgoing driving in favor of strolling to shops and dining.
On some level, this makes them a much more active type of community.
There are other high rises which are targeted to specific clientele such as the more affluent or retirees. Both types of residents will be expecting certain accommodations to be met in order to promote their version of a standard of living.
Affluent residents will be looking for amenities such as valet and concierge service.
Retirees might prefer access to daily activities that help promote healthy social interactions.
Young professionals may not be heard from at all!
These wide range of characteristics must be acknowledged by the acting HOA and association manager.
Special High Rise HOA Responsibilities
Unlike a condo complex, a high rise is going to have many more residents as part of the community. This means all the typical common areas such as parking, places to hold parties (which should be used only through reservation and managed by a committee or management company representative) and storage will be exponentially increased.
There are other areas that need special attention in a high rise such as:
- Window washing
- Heating and air conditioning
- Floor by floor sprinklers/fire alarms
- Elevator maintenance
- Emergency response planning
The benefit of having so many more residents is that it will be easier to recruit HOA volunteers. These board members can be split up into various committees charged with the task of supervising a specific area of the high rise complex. Because of the volume of potential residents, many high rise HOAs have turned to community association management companies to provide structured assistance with regard to collecting fees and maintaining other services.
This Article is Provided by The Management Trust.