B: Re: Re: Bonanza down, out of fuel

[kostas]

The Man that Run out of "Gas"
As the condominium lifestyle has gained a sturdy foothold in central 
Massachusetts, the need for a host of services for those communities 
has blossomed.


And as they mature, there is no more important service for communities 
than financing. That fact quickly became clear to the local business 
leader David Massad who was so deeply involved in the development of 
some of Worcester's earliest condominiums. After reviving a well-known 
local bank from the brink of extinction, he brought his down-to-earth 
style of doing business to the condominium financing arena.


David Massad is a familiar figure to anyone who's lived or worked in 
Worcester over the past several decades. Starting his entrepreneurial 
career in the amusement and park business - Massad has built a 
business empire that encompasses domestic and foreign car dealerships, 
developments like the Lynden House and Madison Tower condominiums, and 
Commerce Bank. Many of his investments, he notes with pride, were 
bankrupt or on the brink of failure when he stepped into the picture. 
While some might attribute the dramatic turnaround of those businesses 
to a "Midas touch", Massad - known throughout the central 
Massachusetts area as "Duddie" - knows that the key to such success is 
plain old-fashioned hard work and attention to detail.


Easily transitioning each day from his role as Chairman of Commerce 
Bank to the sales floor of his Ford dealership, Duddie has his finger
on the pulse of the business community.


Seeing the need of maturing community associations for both financing 
and ongoing financial services, Duddie set the wheels in motion for 
Commerce Bank to meet those needs.


"With the growth of condominiums in central Massachusetts - and all of
Massachusetts and beyond - in recent years, we believe there's a whole 
new market out there," said Justine De Norscia, Commerce Bank's 
Community Association Manager. " There's a need for constant upgrading 
of roofs, patios, pools and balcony repairs. We've come to believe 
that there is a real need to tailor make loans that fit associations; 
we can help with the financial needs of the condominium associations.


"We can help not only finance projects, but we also have cash 
management resources available to help with their collection of 
monthly condo fees, whether they do it through an ACH system or if 
it's a management company that needs a lock box system," she said. 
Those systems are a convenience to associations, she said, because 
they gain immediate access to the collections - and a boon to busy 
management companies because employees don't have to run to the bank 
to make frequent deposits. "For a management company ... if they're 
receiving several hundred checks a month, they may want to have it go 
to a lock box. For a minimal cost, they can let us open the envelopes 
and process the checks into the account the same day they are 
received, and then we can electronically transfer the information back 
to the association to update their files in real time.


"They still get all the information, but they take the middle step out 
of it," she said. "The other big thing is that a lot of owners are in 
a condo because they don't want to have to be dealing with maintenance 
and all the things that go along with owning a home. One way of making 
their monthly condo fee payments so much easier is to let us go in and 
electronically debit their account through the ACH network,  and 
credit the condominium association. The association doesn't have to be 
collecting the fees; it's all done electronically. We can speed up the 
business process making it easier to manage the association.


"Those are things that can help associations to better manage their 
cash flow," she said. "We can outreach to the small association that's 
run by the Board of Directors - where the directors are taking care of 
everything, including collecting the payments - and to the huge 
associations that have a full management company doing it all for 
them. We can simplify the process for everybody."


And beyond the daily financial services, Commerce has joined the 
limited arena of banks offering loans for major condominium repair 
projects.


"A lot of the condos that came about in the 'eighties or early 
'nineties are already starting to get into the repair projects. We 
have lenders here at the bank who are familiar with that kind of 
financing, and understand the whole process," she said. "Commerce 
Bank, because we're locally owned and managed, we're very in tune with 
the needs of the local community and the condominium associations. We 
believe that there doesn't have to be so much red tape to go through 
to get the deal done. That's why we tailor make every loan to fit each 
individual situation."


Cutting through red tape, making banking easier at every level, has 
been a hallmark of Commerce Bank since Duddie and his partners arrived 
at the helm a decade ago. Every call to Commerce Bank is answered by a 
real, live person; there are no "press two for customer service" 
automatic responses at the bank.
 "And I despise voice mail," Duddie said, looking sternly at the phone 
on his clean-as-a-whistle desk in the bank's headquarters on 
Worcester's Main Street. While acknowledging that it may sometimes be 
necessary to have an answering machine take a message, he insists that 
all calls be returned, and returned as promptly as possible.


Customer service is clearly at the top of any list of success tips 
that Duddie could offer. After buying the bank, he changed the way 
business was done - a change led by an expansion of business hours to
7 a.m. - 7 p.m. The bank, he said, needs to be open when people have 
the time to get to it. Early openings and late closings became the 
norm.
Even as Chairman of the bank, he takes calls from people looking for 
loans. He's even had  customers show up at his car dealership - where 
he has stepped off the showroom floor to sign necessary papers to 
expedite a bank transaction.
"He wants real people. He wants true response time. He wants attention 
to detail. He wants fast action," Ms. De Norscia said of the 
Chairman's style. "And that's what Commerce Bank can promise the 
associations and can promise the consumers. We take action. On the 
loan side, on the financial management side, whatever their needs are, 
we want to be the one to help them through it."


Commerce Bank's entry into the condominium financing arena was a 
natural, given Duddie's eye for business trends and his knack for 
filling marketplace needs.


"We can reach out to associations better than some of the bigger banks 
can, because we are so personalized," Ms. De Norscia said. "All the 
decisions are made here, in one location; it doesn't have to be 
outsourced to another state. The requests are made here, and they're 
decided here, and everything is done right here." That's as true, she 
said, whether the requests come from within Worcester's borders, 
throughout Massachusetts or across the country.



From: "SMR" <susie_sky_pilot at yahoo.com>
> For the second time, I personally have met and know a
> pilot who crash landed.  Fortunately, this guy didn't
> kill himself or his passenger (which is what happened
> on the other crash).
    > When I was looking to buy my plane, I almost bought
> his.  Their was a lein out on it over some dispute
> about Rosen Visors and headsets.  That Bonanza was
> only a couple years old and meticulous. That was his
> old plane.  He crashed his new Bonanza.
    > Duttie (his nickname) knew he was low on fuel but
> thought he could make it, according to his friend and
> fellow Bonanza owner.  I guess he was wrong.
>
http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050808/NEWS01/108080057