Significant Abstracts and Patterns

Lincoln Villagers, councilors meet:[WORCESTER Edition] Kathleen A. Shaw, Telegram+Gazette Staff. Telegram+Gazette. Worcester, Mass.:
Jan 27, 1995. p. B1Abstract (Summary)
WORCESTER - The original developer of Lincoln Village is applying for an equity loan on the property, which has been valued at $50.3 million, District 4 City Councilor Janice L. Nadeau told residents last night.
Nadeau, who chairs the council's housing committee, and members Mike Perotto, District 2 councilor, and Councilor-at-Large John B. Anderson urged about 75 tenants last night at a meeting at the St. Nicholas Avenue School to keep accurate records of housing code violations and other complaints.The tenants were angered when Nadeau read a letter she got from Cornerstone Corp., which manages the apartments and town houses there, saying that all work orders - requests for repairs or upgrading of apartments - were "current." One woman, who said she has asthma and had a heart attack, said she has been trying to get a working air conditioner for more than a year, but gets the run-around from the management office.
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Copyright Patriot Ledger May 29, 1996

ROCKLAND -- The 450 tenants of the troubled Rockland Place subsidized housing complex can expect thousands of dollars in improvements to the development this summer after the appointment of a new management company. Cornerstone Corp. of Norwood has been given the job of managing the 204-unit development off John Dunn Drive. Representatives of the company have been touring the complex, taking note of needed repairs and meeting residents this week. It will begin managing the property officially Saturday. "With a lot of attention and some hard work we can bring about some real improvement to Rockland Place," said Robert Evans, executive vice president of Cornerstone. The company will be paid a management fee of about $80,000 a year.....

..........group of private investors that owns Rockland Place..........

.................the tenants meeting last night agreed that parking-lot lighting and improved nighttime security are priorities....................

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copyrightThe Patriot Ledger. Quincy, Mass.:May 13, 1999. p. 17 Abstract (Summary)

ROCKLAND -- In 1996 when Cornerstone Corp. took over the management of Rockland Place, a 204-unit subsidized-housing complex, tenants were hoping for big improvements.

The complex has persistent problems with upkeep, vacant apartments and drugs, according to tenants and the latest review by the Massachusetts Housing Finance Agency.

.....they have to fight to get repairs done................ Paul Rhuda, vice president of Cornerstone Corp., the Norwood company that manages the complex, said it is evicting drug dealers and tenants who destroy the property. "We are trying to get the undesirables out," he said. "There are probably 10 to 12 households we would rather not be at Rockland Place. They are bringing in outside problems. "We are working with the Rockland police to clean it up. I do believe if we can get this last core of residents out we can change the image of Rockland Place. We are making progress."

Many problems that existed when Cornerstone took over from Abrams Management Co. in 1996 continue today, residents say......... "They've done some repairs but not all of them...... Many violations existing in 1996 haven't been touched."

   (Valerie) Dailey said: "The buildings are all poorly maintained. They don't want to spend the money." Dailey has epilepsy and asthma. Between wall-to-wall carpeting and floods into her bedroom and closets from an adjacent laundry room, keeping her asthma under control is difficult, she said.

    She took Cornerstone to Brockton Housing Court and got three doctors' letters recommending that her wall-to-wall carpeting be replaced with either wood, tile or linoleum flooring. But she says she is still contending with mold and mildew in the carpeting, walls and closets. She has moved everything out of her bedroom, where the flooding occurred, and lives in one room with furniture and boxes stacked from floor to ceiling.

  Dailey has asked the local health board and the state Housing Finance Agency, which oversees the state's subsidized housing, asking them to force Cornerstone to replace her carpeting with linoleum.........
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BLOGGER'S NOTE:   Tragically, after years of stressful living conditions,  threats, and while acting as leader of the tenants' council, Ms. Valerie Dailey's body suffered decomposition in her 'affordable' Rockland Place apartment.

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PARKING GARAGE DROPPED FROM PLAN:[THIRD Edition]

Boston Globe. Boston, Mass.:Dec 11, 1999. p. E1 Abstract (Summary)

A proposed controversial four-story parking garage on Chelsea Street in Charlestown has been dropped in favor of a mixed-use building that will include 10,000 square feet of retail space on the ground floor and 35,000 square feet of office space. The updated plan from Norwood-based Gateway Developers, a subsidiary of Cornerstone Corp.,...............................The Massachusetts Housing Finance Agency has received a $75,468 award from the Department of Housing and Urban Development. ...............................

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DEVELOPER GAINS $1.1M IN LOSING BID RIVAL FORCED TO BUY TURNPIKE TRACT:[3rd Edition] Brian C. Mooney, GLOBE STAFF. Boston Globe. Boston, Mass.:May 26, 2000. p. A.1

Abstract (Summaries)

........ turnpike officials forced the winning bidder to buy a tiny adjacent lot with its crumbling building that was bought on speculation a year ago by [James M.] Connolly's client. Armed with Connolly's political clout and the turnpike's assent, Conroy Development Corp. of Canton gained a $1.1 million profit. Conroy hired Connollylast September and paid him $25,000 for lobbying services. It proved to be a good investment. In a rapid chain of events, Connolly met several times with then-turnpike chairman James J. Kerasiotes in the five-week period before the authority designated Conroy's rival as builder of a retail-office complex. When Kerasiotes picked Gateway Developers, a joint venture of Charlestown-based Keane Inc., a computer consulting firm, and the Cornerstone Corp., a real estate developer from Norwood, he went with the leading candidate for the job. The Charlestown Neighborhood Council strongly favored the Keane-Cornerstone plan over Conroy's. Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino had also weighed in heavily for Keane, whose computer business has been headquartered in City Square since the 1980s..........................

......... the Keane-Cornerstone team was not without its own political muscle. They had Menino's support, and hired the law firm of McDermott Will and Emery and its Boston managing partner,Robert Cordy, one-time legal counsel to former governor William Weld, who is also a partner at the firm. Cordy, a Cellucci loyalist and former chairman of the judicial nominating committee, represents numerous clients before state agencies and was a registered lobbyist until 1998..................

..................A third Cellucci confidant, higher education chairman Stephen Tocco, was also an unregistered lobbyist at the time, frequently contacting Kerasiotes on behalf of his client, National Development of New England, which lost out to a joint venture pushed by Connolly.

Tocco, chief executive officer of the lobbying firm, ML Strategies, did not deny lobbying Kerasiotes, but through spokeswoman Nancy Sterling said he has been in compliance with the law. He belatedly registered as a lobbyist forNational Development and three other companies late last December under pressure from Secretary of State William F. Galvin, who raised questions about discrepancies in ML Strategies' public filings.  .......

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For sale: glass house (Abstract Summary)Yvonne Abraham. Boston Globe. Boston, Mass.:Oct 12, 2008. p. B.1

In a federal lawsuit filed last year, they charged that Cornerstone and on-site manager Linda Evans have awarded desirable apartments to friends, thwarted tenants' right to representation, extorted money from them for routine services and repairs, and intimidated them with eviction threats.

......Wilkerson is altogether too cozy with Cornerstone, some residents say.

"Dianne Wilkerson knows that we have a problem with Linda Evans, and Dianne Wilkerson chose to join herself at the hip with Linda Evans," says Jim McNeill, who has lived at Roxse Homes for 36 years.

   McNeill and other tenants say Wilkerson has repeatedly intervened on Cornerstone's behalf in their dispute. For example, when tenants tried to exclude Evans from a meeting, says association member George Jones, Wilkerson brought her in "by the hand." Both men say Wilkerson made calls on Cornerstone's behalf to officials from MassHousing, which oversees the development and hears disputes between the parties.

MassHousing confirms that Wilkerson has been calling for at least a year to advocate for her campaign donor  (Cornerstone Corp).