The Main Street WIRE

*January, 2004*	The Main Street WIRE reports that Christopher Daly’s Sheldrake Organization is a likely investor in the companies that own Island House and Westview.
Spring/Summer, 2004	Island House and Westview owners enter into an agreement with Sheldrake ORganization to work toward privatization of the two buildings.
May, 2004	New management company, Blackwell Management, formed for the two buildings.
June, 2004	The RIOC Board authorizes two Board members to discuss extension of ground leases with Sheldrake. A letter from Charles Lucido, who heads the owner groups for both buildings, tells tenants and employees that they will benefit from Sheldrake involvement.
August, 2004	Island House group asks tenants to contribute $50 per apartment to start a fund to be used in preparing a tenant-ownership plan.
September, 2004	Eastwood begins privatization process.
November, 2004	Daly and his Vice President in charge of Roosevelt Island matters meet with tenants in Good Shepherd Community Center, saying Sheldrake wants to sell Island House to its residents.
November, 2004	IHTA Board election. Ownership steering committee disbanded.
3/7/05	IHTA Board adopts bylaws, but without a vote of residents.
6/28/05	Tenants approve new bylaws with 75% vote.
9/7/05	IHTA Board resigns, except for one member.
9/8/05	Tenants vote to increase Board size from 5 to 9 members.
9/30/05	New Board elected, with 205 apartments voting.
10/7/05	A newly elected Board, headed by Dorothy Davis, is "born out of a fractious environment," as she described it Wednesday evening, "and we had to get through that in order to pull this off." She said, "We hit the ground running."
10/18/05	In the new Board’s first meeting with Sheldrake, they are told that a $295-per-square-foot deal is off the table and that $400 per square foot is to be the price. "It jump-started everyone into thinking about buying the building," Davis said.
10/27/05	A larger group meets with RIOC Board members Deborah Beck and John Mannix. "They basically told us that they couldn’t talk with us about ground leases unless we were in the ownership position," Davis said. (That has now been achieved with the signing of the letter of intent.
11/18/05	Sheldrake appears "antsy" in another meeting with IHTA Board members. "We were surprised at how much pressure they seemed to be under and that they were so eager to make a deal with us," Davis said.
11/29/05	With a counteroffer ready, another meeting with Sheldrake. "Sheldrake didn’t expect us to come back that fast. They realized we were really serious."
11/30/05	IHTA holds a meeting with tenants in which attorney Stuart Saft says that Sheldrake ownership is imminent – that the deal giving Sheldrake full ownership was to have closed that day.
1/9/06	Attorney Saft gets a phone call from Charles Lucido, setting up a meeting between him and the tenant groups in both Westview and Island House. The meeting takes place two days later.
1/14/06	The WIRE reports that Sheldrake’s Westview deal is in jeopardy over missed payments. But Sheldrake has apparently also missed its deadline for Island House, and that deal is considered "off," though Lucido tells The WIRE that the Sheldrake arrangement "is not irreparably dead."
1/18/06	Lucido writes to RIOC saying that Sheldrake is now out of the picture.
1/23/06	Negotiating team of Island House Tenants Association Board meets a second time with Lucido to review draft Letter of Intent. Revised draft letter of intent approved and signed at an Executive Session of the IHTA Board Monday night1/23/06 Negotiating team of Island House Tenants Association Board meets a second time with Lucido to review the draft Letter of Intent. Once terms were agreed upon, revised draft letter of intent was unanimously approved and signed at an Executive Session of the IHTA Board Monday night. Board signature page was faxed to Lucido.
1/24/06	Letter of intent was signed by Lucido. Copy of Letter of Intent was sent to RIOC effectively putting Island House in the ownership position to begin negotiations on a ground lease.
1/25/06	Meeting with tenants; Letter of Intent distributed, discussed. "This could not have been done had we not become unified on the Board," said Davis.
1/30/06-1/31/06	Island House will have Annual Elections of the Board.