'Tis the Season

Real Estate Weekly, Dec 27, 2000

New York City Council Speaker Peter Vallone, on behalf of the City Council, and Bradford Construction Corporation received the New York Construction News Best of 2000 Humanitarian Award for their efforts to successfully renovate Peter's Place -- New York City's only drop-in center for the elderly homeless.

As financial benefactors to the project, the City Council worked closely with construction managers Bradford Construction and the New York Building Congress to rehabi1itate the 10,000 SF shelter. The Most Reverend Edward M. Egan, Archbishop of New York, recognized Bradford's efforts uniting the construction industry.

Run under the umbrella of the New York City Partnership for the Homeless, Peter's Place serves over 200,000 meals a year to frail and elderly homeless, finds them permanent housing, and provides medical service and other social services.

On Dec. 20, Edward Gueits, executive vice president of Gueits, Adams & Company, attended a breakfast at the Puerto Rican Family Institute, where he distributed toys I cash and luxury goods, including a giant-size color television, to under-served children and families of the Institute. Gueits has been associated with the organization for more than ten years. More recently, he has personally adopted the Manhattan Child Placement Prevention and Adolescent Day Treatment Programs.

The Manhattan Child Placement Prevention Program provides services to families and children at risk and is geared to promoting family integration, focusing on increasing the family skills needed to provide safe and nurturing parenting for children. The Adolescent Day Treatment Program provides psychiatric and educational services to Hispanic middle school students that are severely emotionally disturbed.

Every year the Puerto Rican Family Institute teams up with a group of contributing organizations to help put a smile on the some of the faces of the children and families it serves. The contributing organizations this year include Banco Popular; Panasonic Consumer Electronic; Hispanic Federation; Toys for Tots; Howard Rubenstein Associates; Merck Pharmaceuticals; and WNBC-TV. The Institute serves more than 15,000 children and families per year, many of whom live below the poverty line, some are newly arrived immigrants to the United States, and others are afflicted with severe emotional and behavioral problems.

Charles H. Greenthal & Co. joined Manhattan's downtown brokerage community in organizing a gift drive for students of PS 33.

Many of the children at that school live in homeless shelters or come from families with household incomes well below the poverty line.

"When it comes to volunteering our time or other resources, children are our number-one priority," said Jonathan West, president of Charles H. Greenthal & Co., one New York's largest real estate firms.

Greenthal & Co., along with other large agencies with downtown brokers, like Rob Gross of Douglas Elliman, worked to make a happier holiday season for more than 200 boys and girls from PS 33. The school is located in Chelsea.

In addition, as part of a larger real estate community effort, many of the company's brokers have volunteered to work with the Nazareth House to help children during the holidays. Gifts for both individual children and sharable "house" gifts will be donated.

The Nazareth House is a shelter for homeless women with children. The women are mostly under 21.

Two local charities are richer by $900 each as a result of the Douglas Elliman Christmas Boutique, a one-day bazaar held by Douglas Elliman Scott

Associates in Darien, Conn.

Nineteen vendors (the kind of merchants who sell at street fairs), including vendors from Maine and Vermont, set up shop to sell a variety of clothing and gift items, with the stipulation that 10 percent of their sales be reserved for the charities. Some 300 people thronged the Christmas Boutique in the Douglas Elliman office at 27 Old King's Highway in Darien, said Wanda Dunn, office manager there.

The $1,800 was divided between Person to Person, which distributes food and clothing to the needy in the Darien area as well as scholarship and "campership" programs, and Center for Hope, which runs support groups for adults and children with life-threatening illnesses and bereavement groups.

Douglas Elliman Scott Associates held a similar Christmas Boutique two years ago.