Interim property manager will stay on at Marina City

August 2, 2013 – As the condo board at Marina City sifts through cost overruns of an unpopular lobby renovation project, it has hired a property manager to replace the one whose resignation in March was likely influenced by the overruns.

William O’Leary, who has been interim property manager since March 4, was hired at the July 18 meeting of Marina Towers Condominium Association. Thursday was his first day as full-time property manager.

O’Leary is an assistant vice president at DK Condo, a company owned by Draper and Kramer, a property and financial services company with headquarters in Chicago. For 15 years he was president of Invsco Management Company, managing condo conversion projects across the United States. He was recently president of 415 Condominium Association, a condo building that overlooks Belmont Harbor. He is a Certified Property Manager and a licensed real estate broker.

He is also president of Apartment Building Owners and Managers Association, a not-for-profit organization that serves the residential property industry in Chicago, according to its website.

He replaces David Gantt, who had been the residential property manager at Marina City since October 2003. The day after Gantt resigned, former MTCA president Donna Leonard told unit owners of an investigation into lobby renovation projects on Gantt’s watch that may have cost significantly more than amounts for which they were approved. However, both Gantt and former MTCA attorney Daniel Meyer have said that O’Leary was in charge of those projects from just a few weeks after construction first started in the west tower.

It took ten weeks to renovate the west tower lobby, which reopened on March 15, 2013. The new east tower lobby (above) opened on May 1 after a six-week construction project. (Click on image to view larger version.)

In June, the newly elected MTCA president told unit owners the lobby project is 25 to 40 percent over budget due mainly to the budget and specifications being incomplete. Ellen Chessick told owners that she had been told by O’Leary that many items needed for the new lobbies – such as seating, tables, rugs, and artwork – were not included in the budget or specifications given to contractors.