NAA Eyes New York City
NAA seeks to create a local affiliated apartment association or to partner with an existing association.

NAA Chairman of the Board Tom Beaton, CPM, senior vp management at The Dolben Company hosted an informational luncheon at the New York City Athletic Club. photo by Diana Mosher
By Diana Mosher, Editorial Director
New York—”If I can make it there, I’ll make it anywhere. It’s up to you New York, New York.” So go the lyrics in the classic song recorded by Frank Sinatra. Ironically, the hugely influential National Apartment Association (NAA) already has a presence in a number of international locales and everywhere in the U.S. except for Cleveland, Minneapolis, West Virginia… and New York.
Now NAA is seeking to win over these non-participants with an outreach and education initiative designed to create a local affiliated apartment association or to partner with an existing association.
To kick off this effort in New York, NAA Chairman of the Board Tom Beaton, CPM, senior vice president, management, The Dolben Company and other NAA members hosted an Apartment Housing Industry Luncheon at the New York City Athletic Club in June. The purpose of the luncheon was to help area real estate executives learn more about NAA and how it can support them and the apartment industry in the New York City metropolitan area.
“We looked at markets across the country where there was a void,” said Beaton. “We’re starting a dialogue about how we can work together. We don’t want to barge into New York. Our preference is to work together in partnership with an established local association. This is an introductory meeting,” added Beaton. “We want to start the process, to move forward here in New York City.”
The New York event drew representatives from a number of high-profile apartment companies including Winn, Greystar, Lincoln, Kettler, Bozzuto, UDR, and AvalonBay. “We work with these companies across the country. We’d like to work with them here in New York,” said Beaton.
For over 75 years, NAA has been the national voice for the apartment industry—a group of 165 state and local apartment associations nationwide representing over 68,000 members and more than 7.85 million apartment units. For New York’s apartment owners, operators and management companies of all sizes, NAA offers its collective knowledge and resources to help members problem-solve, save money, train their employees and stay up-to-date on their markets’ legislative and legal issues.
Benefits to NAA membership include federal, state and local legislation advocacy; Click & Lease (a national lease program with customized, area-specific leases and assistance with operational landlord-tenant issues); and NAAEI (the education institute which provides industry training and designations).
“Membership makes us money. It makes our jobs easier,” said Bill Wollinger, COO, WinnCompanies and chair of the NAA Membership Task Force. “Our organization employs 3,000 people. We hire two people every day. We’re constantly sourcing individuals. Through our participation in NAA we’ve been able to easily source people and vendors when we’ve opened up for business elsewhere.
“Our business is limited in growth only by our ability to grow the people,” Wollinger added.
Member companies enjoy educational offerings for leasing, maintenance, and management professionals as well as high-level leadership programs. “Our executives are expected to participate in NAA and to become leaders,” said Wollinger.
“[Without membership in NAA] we would never have known about an effective sprinkler retro-fit strategy developed by an NAA affiliate in Texas,” said Mike Beirne, executive vice president, The Kamson Corporation in New Jersey. For any subject from technology to legislation to employees, I can pick up the phone. I have the largest Rolodex.”
For more information about NAA and to be included in upcoming events in New York, please contact NAA’s VP of Membership and Affiliate Services, David Edwards MBA, IOM, CAE, at [email protected] or visit www.naahq.org.