One of the best-kept secrets is the existence of a housing complex — Holliday Park — that is nestled along the Nature Preserve and Rouge River at the northern end of Westland, Michigan. Holliday Park is a #1 place to live. The complex is well managed, and is financially sound – even in these tough economic times; and can also brag of having well-kept grounds and property.

Holliday Park went through many growing pains before it matured to the wonderful housing cooperative it is today. Let’s take a look backwards for a minute.

The Kaufman and Broad Contractors built Holliday Park in nine sections, over a period of 4 years. The original plan was to build about 400 units, along with a swimming pool, tennis courts, a fancy Clubhouse with a twenty-foot awning over the front entrance, and a 9-hole golf course on the north side of the property. The townehouses started to sell much faster than anticipated, so Kaufman and Broad decided to build approximately 300 more units where the golf course had been originally planned.

Because of the change in plans, and because the clubhouse burned during a fire, the builders changed the original name for the complex from Brandywine/Three Fountains Country Club to Holliday Park Townehouses.

As the construction of the units advanced, the builders hired a Management Firm to be the governing Board for the housing complex. After a few years, Holliday Park members realized that they could do the work required of a corporate board, with the help of specific committees  and still be able to give personal or individual attention  to our Cooperative. Bravely, they put together a plan to achieve the success of someday being mortgage free and self-sustaining at a savings of millions of dollars, over the next 30 plus years.   The volunteers are the heart of every aspect of co-op community life. They created a 7 member Board of Directors chosen by a majority of the members by vote.  They  decided to hire an in-house Property Manager to oversee the infrastructure, exterior and grounds. It was an exciting and challenging time for members and not every experience was a success, as there was a great deal to learn.

Our first experience with self-management was a disappointment. An ad hoc Finance Committee discovered that the Co-op was in violation of our Mortgage Agreement by not paying into the Mandatory Reserves.

A new Board of Directors, with a new, very financially qualified Treasurer, took over. From that day on, all good things started to happen … an upturn which has continued to this day. A new Property Manger and  Maintenance Supervisor were hired; a variety of committees were established; policies were revised and enforced; and long-awaited improvements were made to the interior and exterior of the property.

The most important item of business for the Board was to pay off our indebtedness to the Mandatory Reserves. After that, the Board worked on Budgets, and stuck to them. The slogan was: “Let’s control the controllable, and accept the uncontrollable only.”

Some factors that contributed to the many successful years that followed to the present time, were:

1. The Board remained the same for many years. Consistency in Board Members helped.
2. Board Members had a similar philosophy when it came to managing the Co-op’s money.
3. The Board Members believed strongly in enforcing policy. Adhering to policy was, and still is, a pre-requisite to promoting peaceful co-existence among the membership.
4.  The Residents have always volunteered to Chair Committees, Create a Social Environment, Uphold the Policies and Procedures of the corporation, and keep the needs of the community met, without personal agenda, and by exercising diplomacy while working as a team.
5.  Being Frugal, practical and focused with a knowledge of the Co-ops history, a reverence for the policies and procedures upon which the co-op thrives and a discerning eye towards future challenges and projects that will sustain the community for many decades to come.

Holliday Park can be very proud of its growth and maturity. Today, Holliday Park is financially solvent, has no mortgage and is a very successful housing Cooperative, one of the biggest and best in the entire State of Michigan.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 2nd, 2009 at 4:03 pm and is filed under Holliday Park. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.