Cooper Square Realty Inc.: offering a professional advantage in residential property management

Real Estate Weekly,  May 13, 1998  

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As with all evolutionary paradigms, those management companies unable to keep pace have disappeared, either going out of business or being swallowed by more advanced concerns. By contrast, those forward-thinking organizations that have made the necessary investments in technology and personnel have survived. And those few that have risen to the top of the class are setting the new standard within the industry, and are being rewarded with the patronage of the most discerning client base.

Making this most successful list is Cooper square Realty, Inc., recently recognized by The Cooperator newspaper as the #1 Mid-Size Residential Management Company in New York. This distinction, and a cadre of other honors both recent and past, are the result of what Cooper square owner/president David Kuperberg, CPM, RAM, says is his company's commitment to providing "the professional advantage" to a portfolio that is defined by many of New York's most distinguished residences.

Founded in 1908 by Kuperberg's grandfather Max and today headquartered in 9,000 square feet at 6 East 43rd Street in Manhattan, Cooper square currently manages more than 75 co-ops, condos and rental properties, many of them among the city's most luxurious and amenity-rich, boasting addresses on Fifth Avenue and Sutton Place, and in such upscale neighborhoods as Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hill, Murray Hill, and Battery Park City.

Since assuming the company's stewardship from his father Mike in 1978, David Kuperberg has cultivated the firm and its reputation for upscale, white-glove service through a deliberate plan of measured growth and a tri-fold philosophy of professionalism, innovation and goal-setting.

Kuperberg himself is a model of this philosophy. A Certified Property Manager and Advanced RAM (Registered Apartment Manager), he is also treasurer of the National Board of Governors of the Registered Apartment Managers and Chair of that body's State Licensing of Property Managers Subcommittee. He is also a member of the National Association of Home Builders (for which he recently authored the book, Licensing of Residential Property Managers: A Study of State Licensing Requirements), an active member of the Institute of Real Estate Management and the Real Estate Board of New York's Residential Management Council, and was elected this year to the Board of Directors of the Associated Builders and Owners of Greater New York. Kuperberg is an Adjunct Professor at New York University's Real Estate Institute, has been published and quoted in The New York Times and other publications, and has appeared as a multi-family real estate authority on Court TV's nationally-broadcast Legal Cafe. He also has earned for Cooper square the coveted credential of AMO (Accredited Management Organization), making it one of very few management companies nationwide to be so designated, and the only AMO in New York to specialize in luxury residences.

Innovation-wise, Kuperberg has established Cooper square as a technology, information and communication leader. He personally created a proprietary in-house computer program for preparing properties' financial reports which presents not only immediate data, but also trends, changes and comparisons with industry standards, all with accompanying color graphs and charts.

"Asset management is among the most important services full-service professional management can provide," says Kuperberg, and he ought to know, since Cooper square's clients comprise an impressive aggregate asset value of $1.2 billion and annual collections of $55 million. "Because navigating a property's finances is a complicated and sometimes daunting exercise, the quality and presentation of the information is as important as the information itself. To the extent that we can present this vital information in a way that's clear and easy to read, we make the job of the building's board or owner that much easier."

In 1995, Kuperberg began publishing Cooper square's quarterly Professional Management newsletter. Two years ago, he introduced a program of producing staff performance guidelines manuals and residents' handbooks of policies, procedures and guidelines for his portfolio clients. And this January, he announced Cooper square's new RAP (Rapid Applications Processing) Program, which guarantees a 48-hour turnaround of sales and rental applications for all Cooper square-managed co-ops and condos.

Kuperberg also has developed a program with a national insurance carrier to provide coverage to eligible cooperative and condominium homeowners and renters at discounted rates, and a similar program for the properties under his company's management. He has been instrumental in fostering uniquely cooperative relationships between sponsors/investors/converters and the boards of his properties, and, calling upon his other professional credential as a civil engineer, he consistently brings construction industry standards to capital improvement projects in the properties he oversees.