The Building & Realty Institute of Westchester and the Mid-Hudson Region (BRI) marked its 75th anniversary on Feb. 11 with Lisa DeRosa, president of DeRosa Builders Inc. of White Plains, having been named its new president.
“My goal is to bring more transparency and give the organization a greater voice,” said DeRosa, who is also BRI”™s first female president. “Whenever an issue occurs in the building and realty industries, I want the BRI to be the ultimate source in the Hudson Valley. I want to amplify our members”™ voices and give the BRI a larger spotlight.”
“We always hear the term ”˜glass ceiling”™ when it comes to women,” DeRosa said, while noting that she did not encounter it at DeRosa Builders where her father”™s office staff of a dozen was all women. She said that”™s evident from the fact that her father selected her to lead the company.
“Women bring a lot of different perspectives that are completely different from men”™s. And I think it”™s extremely important to have equal representation on all fronts to truly represent the society that we live in,” she said.
DeRosa told the Business Journal that while the BRI already has a strong presence in Albany and a lobbyist, it is a very large group and she would like to see it do more to utilize the power that comes with having a substantial number of members and a long-term reputation. The Armonk-based organization was formed on Feb. 11, 1946, and has grown to have 1,800 members who come from 14 counties in New York.
“There is a lot of legislation that seems to be anti-landlord and what I don”™t think people seem to understand is that we create housing,” DeRosa said. “The house you”™re going home to tonight was built by a builder, probably somebody who was or is a member of the Builders Institute.”
She said builders take a tremendous amount of risk to do what they do and government regulations add to the complexity.
“There is a lot of red tape, there”™s a lot of opposition,” DeRosa said. “We need to change the conversation. I say to people, ”˜I create housing and I create jobs. Why would you want to make my job more difficult? Why would you want to make it more difficult for me to hire more people and create more housing?”™”
DeRosa served as a vice chair of the BRI”™s Apartment Owners Advisory Council from 2016 to 2020 and has been a member of its negotiating committee during its labor contract negotiations with Local 32-BJ Service Employees International Union (SEIU). She was elected to the BRI”™s Board of Trustees in 2016 and has served as secretary since 2018.
DeRosa succeeded Vincent Mutarelli as BRI”™s president. As the organization”™s immediate past president, he is serving a one-year term as chair of the board of trustees.
DeRosa”™s late father, John DeRosa served as president of the BRI in the 1960s and was a longtime member of the organization”™s board. Her late mother, Margit DeRosa, was a president and longtime member of the BRI”™s Women”™s Council.
“The Builders Institute has been around my entire life,” DeRosa said. “It probably was one of the first words I learned as a toddler because whenever there was an issue my dad would say, ”˜Call the Builders Institute.”™ The Builders Institute was the source for all things real estate when I was growing up.”
DeRosa had praise for actions taken by the BRI”™s CEO Tim Foley in getting information out to help members react to the Covid pandemic and staging virtual events as substitutes for the organization”™s regular membership gatherings.
“He”™s using every bit of technology he can get his hands on so we can get messages out to our state legislators on things that are coming down the pike,” DeRosa said. “I know that when nonessential construction was shut down it did hurt a lot of people.”
She also said that in many cases government Covid-19 relief programs that are designed to help tenants entail negotiating layer upon layer of red tape and that has delayed getting funds to people who need them and, in turn, to landlords who need revenue to meet expenses to keep their buildings viable. She said that the BRI has been concerned about the scope of the anti-eviction regulations that have gone into effect during the pandemic.
“No owner wants to evict somebody. It”™s not what you do in real estate,” DeRosa said. “You want people to live in your building, to regard it as their home.”
She said that government action that in effect cancels rent creates a trickle-down effect. She also said the organization is very much concerned with issues of affordable housing.
“Our organization encompasses all aspects of real estate: apartment owners, property managers, co-ops and condos, residential builders, commercial builders, suppliers,” DeRosa said.
“There are a lot of benefits to being a member of the BRI in addition to the obvious things like networking or getting help with a problem or tapping into someone else”™s knowledge. Whether you”™re a national company with operations in 50 states or you”™re a small local organization, it”™s worth being a member if you”™re doing business in the Hudson Valley.”
