One of the biggest perks of modern multifamily living is the all-inclusive, amenity-rich building or HOA. Depending on your own building’s offerings, you can go to the gym, swim, have a spa treatment, entertain your kids in the community playroom, or even take in a movie. When you add in food delivery services, work-from-home arrangements, and Netflix, you don’t really have to leave the building if you don’t want to. 

Keeping amenities well-maintained is crucial to retaining their value and protecting the safety of those who use them – but that maintenance goes beyond just keeping the floors swept and the lights on. What about hygiene? Is the spa as clean as you would like to believe? Is the children’s playroom a real-life petri dish? Is the screening room a stopover for bed bugs or roaches? 

Insuring the Best Conditions

Gail Hamilton is the New York City director and partner with Professional Fitness Management, a firm that manages building amenities in the greater New York/New Jersey and Washington D.C. markets. She has more than 30 years’ experience in the field and has worked all over the continental U.S. “For each facility,” she says, “you want to make sure there is adequate signage with the rules and regulations, disclaimers, emergency procedures and contact personnel displayed inside the facility. For instance, ‘slippery when wet’ around pool areas and in shower areas. Things that reduce risk to the property and personnel should be posted and clearly understandable. There should also be training in place for any on-site personnel.”

Vincent Rapolla, a property manager at 77 Hudson Street in Jersey City, a 420-unit high-rise condominium building, says: “The top priority is to maintain a safe, hygienic environment.” One of the means his team uses to accomplish that is a system of sign-offs to keep track of what’s going on in the association’s various amenity areas – particularly the pool and health club. Done by the maintenance staff, the sign-offs keep track of what safety and hygiene measures where completed, and at what time. “This way I can always tell our clients with certainty that we are keeping the facility in top shape,” he says.