Building and Realty Institute Celebrating 70th Anniversary With Birthday Party On April 21st

Turning 70 calls for celebration and the Armonk based Building and Realty Institute of Westchester and the Mid-Hudson Region (BRI) is inviting members, colleagues, friends and community members to celebrate the occasion.

The BRI's current president, Carmelo Milio, knows his tenure during this milestone year for the association is an honor.

“I am privileged to be president of the BRI on the occasion of its 70th anniversary,” Milio said. “It is my hope and my goal to keep the enthusiasm, energy and purpose of this great association on-going and growing.”

The organization, founded in 1946, is holding a birthday party at Glen Island Harbour Club in New Rochelle on April 21 from 6:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. The party will feature music, open bar, gourmet dinner stations and desserts.

BRI has a rich history. It was founded during the post-war boom in residential construction, when a group of Westchester home builders, contractors and suppliers formed the Homebuilders Association of Westchester and Putnam Counties. The new organization soon grew and became the Builders Institute of Westchester and Putnam Counties, Inc. With the introduction of state rent regulations for multi-family apartment buildings in the 1970’s, and the wave of apartment building conversions to cooperatives in the 1980’s and early 90’s, membership expanded to hundreds of landlords, coop and condo presidents and board members, sponsors and property managers.

“It is this great variety and diversity, this incomparable depth and breadth of membership, that gives the BRI its strength and potential for future growth,” said Albert A. Annunziata, BRI Executive Director.

"Our members, the people who drive this association and help keep it vibrant, come from both the construction side as well as the realty ownership and management side,” Annunziata said. “Our past president, Eric Abraham, is a builder-developer of housing. Our current president, Carmelo Milio, is a residential building owner and full-service professional property manager. These two young professionals—and many more like them--represent the future of this industry in Westchester County.”

Annunziata also cited his management team as superbly skilled and experienced.

“Our Associate Executive Director Jeff Hanley; our Comptroller Jane Margaret Gill, Office Manager Margaret Telesco and our Director of Membership Margaret Collins, are the best, most talented co-workers and colleagues that an executive director could ever hope to have,” Annunziata said.

Annunziata also praised the circle of professionals who provide invaluable service to the BRI.

"We simply could not educate, inform, advise and advocate on behalf of our members effectively without the invaluable services of our Chief Counsel, Kenneth J. Finger; Associate Counsels Dorothy, Carl and Daniel Finger (Finger & Finger PC, White Plains); labor counsel Matthew Persanis; insurance managers Ken Fuirst, Jason Schiciano and Marc Spar (Levitt-Fuirst Associates, Ltd.); our legislative advocate, Glenn Riddell (The Riddell Group, Albany); Peter Scala (Shalik-Morris CPAs) and James O'Connor (JP Morgan Chase), our accounting and financial advisors; and Nat Parish (Parish & Weiner) and Richard Hyman, AICP (RH Planning/Consulting).

To purchase tickets and for more information on the event, go to: http://www.buildingandrealtyinstitute.org/eventsgala2016.html

The Building & Realty Institute is one the largest construction, development and real estate-related industry trade associations in New York State.

Founded in 1946, the Westchester County, NY based organization has more than 1500 members, primarily in the Westchester/Mid-Hudson Valley region of the state.

The BRI is supported by a multi-talented professional and consultant staff versed in all facets of the building industry: planning, engineering, law, insurance, environmental regulations and governmental relations on a state, county and local level. Their services extend to all facets of the Building and Realty industries.

For more information about the Building & Realty Institute, please contact Maggie Collins at 914-273-0730 or visit the website:www.buildersinstitute.org/.

Photo 1:
Building and Realty Institute of Westchester and the Mid-Hudson Region Team. Clockwise, from left to right: Albert A. Annunziata, Executive Director; Jeff Hanley, Associate Exec. Director; Margaret Telesco, Office Manager; Jane Margaret Gill, Comptroller; Margaret A. Collins, Director of Membership.

Photo 2:
Carmelo Milio, President, Building and Realty Institute of Westchester and the Mid-Hudson Region.