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The Co-op and Condo Insider
Living Legacy: From Childhood Home to Co-op President
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A simple snowstorm sparked a community transformation. When Brian Sokoloff found himself unable to get his car out of his driveway for four days due to broken snow removal equipment, he knew something had to change at Bell Park Gardens, the Queens cooperative where he'd lived his entire life. That frustration launched him into board leadership and ultimately a complete reinvention of the historic 43-acre property.
Built in 1948 as housing for returning World War II veterans, Bell Park Gardens represents a special chapter in New York's cooperative housing story. As Sokoloff recounts in this revealing conversation, growing up there meant experiencing a uniquely close-knit community where families moved in together, raised children of similar ages, and created lasting bonds. With both simplex and duplex garden apartments featuring backyards and common areas where children played freely, the development fostered a sense of belonging that shaped Sokoloff's understanding of community responsibility.
After establishing a successful legal career representing municipalities in complex litigation, Sokoloff found himself drawn back to community service. Upon joining the board in 2016, he discovered financial mismanagement masked by artificially low maintenance fees that were depleting reserves. Working with fellow board members, he orchestrated a remarkable turnaround – securing a $20 million mortgage with an innovative five-year interest-only period that allowed residents time to prepare for increased costs while funding comprehensive renovations. The result? A transformation from one of the area's most rundown complexes to its most beautiful garden apartment community.
Today's challenges differ dramatically from those faced by previous boards, with modern residents bringing different expectations about noise, privacy, and communal living. The board now navigates neighbor disputes unimaginable in earlier decades while tackling uniquely 21st-century considerations like electric vehicle charging stations and solar panel installations. Join us for this fascinating exploration of how one leader's deep community roots helped bridge the past and future of cooperative living in New York.
Snowstorm Sparks a Board President
Speaker 1There was one time when we had a big snowfall and I could not get my car out of the driveway for four days and they said the machinery broke down and they had no backup . And I thought to myself this is , this is not good . So I'll run and see what's going on .
Speaker 2This is the Co-op and Condo Insider , the podcast dedicated to New York's cooperative and condominium communities . This is your trusted source for the latest insights , strategies and stories shaping the world of shared housing . You will hear from the people who are leaders in this community Information and insights you will not hear anywhere else . If you want to stay ahead , explore the people issues and stories shaping co-op and condo living in New York .
Speaker 3I'm your host , jeffrey Maisel , and today we have a very special guest who is a true lifelong connection to his community , brian Sokoloff . I'm also thrilled to be joined by my co-host , richard Solomon . A seasoned voice in public radio for over 20 years , richard has taken his listeners around the world to meet experts , newsmakers and the people making a real difference in our everyday lives . Richard , it's great to have you on the mic with me today .
Speaker 4Love being here . Love being here .
Speaker 3All right and we have a very special guest . I'm going to give some background and it's very impressive , richard . Richard and I are both attorneys , but we can't hold a candle to this resume here . So Brian Sokoloff . In 2008 , he co-founded Sokoloff Stern LLP , where he continues as a high-profile , well-respected federal litigator to whom clients turn with the most challenging trial court and appellate court assignments . In 2012 , the authoritative SCOTUS blog named Mr Sokolov's Supreme Court certiorari petition in Byrne v Jackler the cert petition of the day . That's like getting the MVP right of the day .
Speaker 3That was exciting , later deemed a petition to watch . Brian regularly lectures at seminars on employment , discrimination and civil rights and has been invited to speak before the New York State Association of Towns , the New York State Conference of Mayors , the Suffolk County Bar Association and groups of New York's chiefs of police and other brass Of equal import is he's the board president at ballpark gardens , so we're going to discuss both growing up at bell park gardens , the challenge and opportunities you face as board president , of course we want to discuss your career and of and , if we have time , of course we want to talk about the New York Mets . So let let's get started with the question , brian , welcome .
Speaker 1Thank you . Thanks for having me . I'm very honored .
Speaker 3Oh , it's our pleasure . So I've said Belmont Gardens about five times . We all know what it is . Why don't you explain where it is and some of the history behind the complex , because it's really a very special historic place ?
Bell Park Gardens History
Speaker 1So Bell Park Gardens is a 43-acre garden apartment-style co-op in eastern Queens . It's bounded by Bell Boulevard , springfield Boulevard and 67th and 73rd Avenues . It was built in 1948 . It was the first of its kind . I think it might have been the first housing co-op in New York State . It was built with government support to provide housing to returning World War II veterans and their families and up until 1990 , that was the rule that you had to be a veteran to be a shareholder .
Speaker 1In 1990 , new York State decided to let us leave their grasp and we went out on the open market like everybody else . What was interesting about it is you had a group of people who moved in in the 40s and then in the 50s there was the Korean War , all starting families , all with kids about the same age . Because there was a real estate tax abatement , the maintenance was very inexpensive and the people who lived there created this tremendously close-knit community . They were all contemporaries , they all stayed there , they became friends , the kids became friends and it was like living in a cocoon . Now I was born toward the end of the baby boom generation , so you know I had my own cohort of people who had older siblings who were there before I was , but I certainly got to live what they experienced .
Speaker 3Was your father or mother in the military ? Father , yes , Did he serve in World War II or the Korean War ?
Speaker 4World War II yeah .
Speaker 3Go ahead .
Speaker 4Was there any connection between Bell Park Gardens and Fort Totten ?
Speaker 1That I can't tell you . But what I can tell you is that we have a quote sister development , which is a little bit to our south in the Hillside Avenue , springfield Boulevard area , and that's called Bell Park Manor and Terrace . It's a little bit bigger but their apartments look just like ours . They must have used the same engineers and architects and they were built at about the same time .
Speaker 3And these are garden apartments .
Speaker 1Garden apartments Garden apartments . So what's unique about our garden apartments is we have both simplex apartments those are apartments that are either on a first floor or a second floor alone , and the duplex apartments have their own backyards , although it's a common area belonging to the co-op . But when you were a kid and you had an argument with your friend .
Speaker 3You would say get off of my property . So I guess all types of ball playing and games and kids would congregate out there all hours of the day . Huh .
Speaker 1All hours of the day . They actually had in our parking lots regulation basketball hoops with a net and a backboard , and these were serious basketball courts .
Speaker 3Any famous people that you could recall who grew up there .
Speaker 1In Bell Park Gardens . Yes , the actor Richard Dreyfuss lived in Bell Park until he was about eight years old . Of course , my mother said when he lived in Bell Park the family was known as Dreyfuss and then they moved to Hollywood and it became Dreyfus . I don't know whether that's true , but the other one is Estelle Getty from Golden Girls . That was Estelle Gettleman and she raised her family in Bell Park and actually moved out and moved to Hollywood in 1990 . So she was there for a while .
Speaker 3Interesting , very good yeah . So you grew up in this place . Have you lived there consistently throughout your life ? Did you move out at any ?
Speaker 1point no , I'm living in the same apartment that I grew up in and everybody is probably thinking it's time for therapy , but it's the garden spot of the world , so Lee , you must love it .
Speaker 3So let's fast forward . You grow up in , you're growing up . You went to high school in , obviously , the area . Where did you go to college ? And law school ?
Speaker 1So I went to college . I tell people I went to UCLA , and that is university on the corner of Lexington Avenue , that's Baruch College . And I went to law school at Brooklyn Law School . I commuted to both schools .
Speaker 3So you made it out of Queens .
Speaker 1I made it out of Queens but back to my family's ancestral homeland . Most of the people I should say that moved into Bell Park Gardens all came from Brooklyn . There were a couple of Bronx people , but it was mostly Brooklyn people .
Speaker 3That's so I . I , I too , lived in a garden apartment in Kew Gardens , and my parents came from Brooklyn , so I guess we were on the same track , all right . So let's so , you , you , you , become a lawyer , and let , let let's you know where did your career start , what type of law were you practicing , and and just
Growing Up in a Community
Speaker 3walk us through that .
Speaker 1So my career started in the New York city law department , which is an agency of the city composed of lawyers that represents the city , does a lot of things , but including representing the city in litigation . And so I spent the first three years of my career in what was called the General Litigation Division of the Law Department where we represented the city in its role as a service provider . So that was cases involving police corrections , some Board of Education cases . They were kind of unique cases . Of course there was a torts division that did trip and falls , but these were federal cases , employment , discrimination cases , so very interesting and it was a professional .
Speaker 1It the status of the law department and I was there for three years , got great training . Probably would have stayed my entire career . But after three years anybody working for that agency or like agencies face a fork in the road where you say do I want to spend my life working for the government , where it's interesting but you kind of take a vow of poverty , or do I want to try my hand in the private sector ? And I happened to find a private law firm that represented other municipalities that weren't big enough to have their own in-house agency . So we're talking about towns and villages and school districts and zoning boards and the like police departments .
Speaker 3Who was the corporation counsel ? Was it FAO Schwartz ?
Speaker 1I was hired by FAO Schwartz .
Speaker 3yes , I do remember Was he related to the toy store .
Speaker 1Yes , he was Okay .
Speaker 3I remember that many years ago . So how did living in Belle Park Auden shape your sense of community and responsibility ?
Speaker 1It set a standard for for me . That made it very important for me to be part of a bigger group and so as you could be a lawyer who has nothing to do with other lawyers that you see in court . But you know , in my career what goes around comes around , and if you give somebody a courtesy it'll come back to you . I don't know if this sounds like BS , but it isn't . I like being in a place where I feel comfortable , so I left the law department , went to a law firm no-transcript , and for 17 years now it's been coming to work with people that I like to be around . That's so important .
Speaker 1There's nothing worse than being a lawyer where you're dealing with nasty adversaries , demanding judges , clients that want things done yesterday and then to come back to your own office , which is supposed to be your home , and feel like you're getting stabbed in the back . That's no way to have a career , no way to work . And so you know we've established and grew a firm that's the exact opposite and it seems like everybody likes it . You know we treat people like professionals and the results show .
Speaker 3So compare Bell Park Gardens today , bell Park Gardens today , versus how you grew up , both the good , the bad and the indifferent , you know , in a broad sense We'll get into further details .
Legal Career Development
Speaker 1First of all , as we talked about before , when you had everybody that moved into Bell Park together and everybody knew everybody , everybody was watching out for everybody . You had basketball courts and people playing , kids playing basketball in the driveways . That was the old Bell Park , and those people aged out , moved to Florida , died whatever , and new people move in who have none of this connection . And so now we're getting calls there's a kid bouncing a basketball outside . It's annoying , please make him stop .
Speaker 1This board that I'm on is dealing with more petty neighbor disputes than we've ever seen . It's people moving in that don't have a concept , and we say this in interviews If you want to move in thinking that you're moving to an isolated castle in France , you can't come in that way . You have to know that , a you have to be considerate of your neighbors and , b you have to be tolerant and allow themselves to live their lives . These noise complaints , somebody's cooking something . I can't stand the smell . So we have to deal with that and that's not fun .
Speaker 1And we turn to our corporate counsel , jeff Maisel , and say Jeff , please be King Solomon and try to , you know , calm the nerves here and you do a very good job with that . But the other thing is we're also dealing with issues that nobody could have dreamed of , like how are we going to put electric vehicle chargers in our driveways and take up all of these spots we don't have enough spots and our company comes to us and says we want to pay you money to rent your roofs . We will put solar panels on your roofs . We will put solar panels on your roofs . Now doing that might wind up voiding our roof warranty . So these are issues now kind of cutting-edge issues that we have to deal with that I'm sure no prior board had to think of these things .
Speaker 3Well , I did notice , as you know , know as an attorney , uh during covid , uh , a lot of my colleagues uh in other fields , and maybe you experienced this because courts were closed for a long time , or we're not , we're not busy , but when everyone's sitting at home in a co-op and trying to work from home , I felt the tolerance for each other was zero . Or , and I would spend more time resolve , trying to resolve disputes , and I feel , for example , people complain that someone has a child that walks too loud or talks too loud or wakes them up . That's what children you know , that's . I never heard that 10 years ago .
Speaker 1Yeah , exactly , and you know what COVID's over . But people got used to not going to work sitting home . I could tell you in my law practice they tell me that it's very difficult to get a court reporter , a stenographer , to come to our office to do a deposition that we're doing in our conference room . They want to sit home and do it on a TV screen in sweatpants .
Speaker 3Right , so let's come back to the board . So when did you become board president or a board member , and what motivated you to become a board member ?
Speaker 1So I act . This is actually my second stint . In the late 1980s , when I was fresh out of law school with a law degree , I figured , oh , this would be good , I'll , I'll run for the board , I'll run for the board . And I went on the board with and it was a cadre of very , very heavily invested older people . They were all retired , they all had specialties and we're at that point . We were self-managed and so the board meetings went on from 7 o'clock to 1 o'clock in the morning and it would be going through every maintenance document . How many screws did they use for this ? And they really went through everything that went on and I said you guys are great , I just can't do this . I'm working , and so I didn't run for another term . It was very interesting .
Speaker 1Fast forward to 2016 . Those people are gone . They've been replaced by people who to say that they weren't paying attention to how the development was running was an understatement . And there was one time when we had a big snowfall and I could not get my car out of the driveway for four
Today's Co-op Challenges
Speaker 1days and they said the machinery broke down and they had no backup . And I thought to myself this is , this is not good . So I'll run and see what's going on . Well , iran Got elected and I got elected with Mark Ulrich , who maybe you should do a podcast with .
Speaker 3Absolutely .
Speaker 1Yeah , he's just phenomenal . And he and I he's an account the CPA . We took a look at how things were run and started asking questions . We uncovered some corruption and there were mass exits from the board and we replaced people and people turned to me and said , like you're the only one who could be president Not what I wanted to do , I just wanted to be at board meetings . But I said okay and I learned on the job .
Speaker 4Would you say that you have more street cred , having been there for so long that you actually know the institutional legacy of the whole place ? Yes , did you run on that as your platform ? I'm firmly rooted here , yeah .
Speaker 1I did yeah , this is not how Bell Park was I know . And I did yeah , this is not how Bell Park was .
Speaker 3I know and I'll show you so , by the way , I think we have the hook for the beginning of the podcast . I ran for the board because of a snowstorm Not one I haven't heard before but I do remember when that happened and I do remember us having many conversations .
Speaker 1But I will say since 2016, . Since I did run for the board on that platform , I can never listen to a winter weather forecast without a sense of dread . I hear that there's going to be snow . I already , I'm not sleeping .
Speaker 3So , so let's , let's go through , because you know you're president . You headed and led a literally a renaissance of the physical plant at Bell Park Gardens , from really one of the most rundown garden apartment complexes in the area to probably the premium most beautiful garden apartment in the area . What work was done .
Speaker 1When I came on the board , it had been mismanaged , but it was mismanaged in a particular way that hid what was going on . That hid what was going on . We had maintenance that was far below market rate . They were basically using the reserve fund to pay monthly expenses and running down the reserve fund in order to say you can't find cheaper maintenance anywhere , and I'm sure that they thought that they had found some you know some magical formula or some secret sauce it's cheap , it's beautiful , everything's great . Belp it's cheap , it's beautiful , everything's great .
Speaker 1The problem is they were really depriving the future of money that was needed . First of all , they didn't spend money on infrastructure , keeping it up , and beyond that , they dwindled the reserve fund . And so we came in . There was a 20% flip tax , and so they thought that , oh , we don't need to raise maintenance , we're getting the money from the flip tax . And the problem is that flip tax is uncertain . And the problem is that flip tax is uncertain and if the market turns bad , as it did during COVID , you're not going to have funds . So fortunately , before COVID , we lowered the flip tax , which generated interest by other lenders . So there was more turnaround , and anyway , we needed we't go from emergency to emergency like this . Let's get a professional in and survey us from top to bottom , tell us what we need to do ,
Financial Revival and Renovation
Speaker 1what the priorities are , what we should do first and second and whatnot .
Speaker 1We got that , and it was a price tag that we didn't have . We didn't have a mortgage . At Bell Park's 30th anniversary , I remember they had a burn , the mortgage party at Terrace on the Park in Flushing Meadows , and we were existing without a mortgage . But we learned from our wise counsel that it's not such a terrible thing to have a mortgage . It's , you know , you'd rather not have one , but it's not the end of the world . And so we happened to do this at a time when interest rates were historically low and we needed $20 million .
Speaker 1We took out a mortgage for 30 years and of course , paying back the mortgage means maintenance is going to go up just for that alone , on top of everything else . But we did it in such a way that for the first five years of this mortgage we were only paying back interest . We're almost at the end of that period , but the importance of doing it that way was that people had five years lead time to know your maintenance is going up in five years by this amount . On top of everything else , if you don't think you're going to be able to afford it , you're going to have to find alternate living arrangements , and you have five years to do it .
Speaker 1So we did that . We took it very seriously . We found all the contractors , interviewed them , I called references there's a lot of funny business with these kinds of things and we got the right people in appliances you know there's a lot of funny business with these kinds of fittings and we got the right people in . They did the job with almost no blips and now we have a development that looks pretty good .
Speaker 3What were the projects that you undertook ?
Speaker 1We got all new rooms , all new siding , all new windows and of course we were changing the style I'm now a window expert from double hung windows to casement windows and of course I told people I was there Bell Park was built with casement windows . I was there when they switched from casement windows to double hung . Well , now we're back to casement windows again and we had all the brickwork that needed repointing .
Speaker 3It's kind of like when I put on my old clothes and my kids tell me it's in again , even though I never knew it was ever out . But casement windows are cool again , so that's a good thing . We're coming to the end of our time here . What we'd like to end ? We always like to end our show with . We call it the rapid fire round . Rich , you have the questions in front of you or you have your own questions .
Speaker 4I do , but I always like to deviate a little bit .
Speaker 3This is where it's time to shine . Rich , Go ahead All right .
Speaker 4So first question is what branch of the military was your dad in ? The Marines ? Ah , and what did he do during World War II ? The Marshall Islands . You know , we have to talk afterwards because my uncle was in the Marine Second Division at the time and he lived in a co-op too . He lived in Clearview , but we'll talk , maybe they who knows , my uncle was actually with the wind talkers , but we'll talk about that , all right . Second question uh , what's your favorite pizza place in queens ?
Speaker 1they can tell you mine , but so my favorite pizza place in queens , my two favorites are gone , so I I don't have a maybe VI Pizza on Northern and Bell .
Speaker 4Yeah , bell Northern and Bell by the White Castle . Yeah , yeah , yeah , yeah . And what was the other one ?
Speaker 1Well , the other one was there was Joe's Pizza on Springfield Boulevard in the expressway , but it's gone with the wind .
Speaker 4Do you remember Gloria Pizza in Flushing ? Of course . Where did you go to high school ?
Speaker 1Cardozo .
Speaker 4Okay . My kids went to 203 , right around the corner . My cousins went to Cardozo . If you weren't the president of the co-op , what would you be doing as a side gig ?
Speaker 1I might be doing a podcast .
Speaker 4Would you do it on co-ops ?
Speaker 3You can still do a podcast . Would you do it on co-ops ? You can still do a podcast .
Speaker 4What would you say is a hidden gem either in Northeast Queens that people should know about . That's under looked because it's like so obvious .
Speaker 1So growing
Rapid Fire Q&A
Speaker 1up I noticed that when you go north on either Bell Boulevard or Springfield Boulevard and you head toward Union Turnpike , there's an overpass and we knew it as the bicycle path and if you wanted to ride your bicycle you went up there . But when I got older I realized well learned , I didn't realize it . Somebody had to tell me that this was part of something called the Vanderbilt Motor Parkway , which was a private road that ran from Flushing all the way out to the middle of Suffolk County and if you see , there's an exit on the Long Island Expressway called the Motor Parkway . That was part of it . But in Queens , certainly from Flushing to around Creedmoor , it still exists . It was a segment . The city has cleaned it up and it's great for bike riding and strolling in nature . So nobody knows where everybody rides under that . What is that up there ? No idea . The Vanderbilt Motor Parkway is a hidden gem in Northeast Queens .
Speaker 4I actually went on that once because I was on Springfield . There's a little path .
Speaker 1And I saw the sign .
Speaker 4And I said you know what I want , because I took my kids to school that way , so I would actually . I actually went up there and I'm like , wow , but how far ? How was it ? It terminates at Creedmoor . Yeah , it's a shame it should go longer .
Speaker 1Well , it used to , and I understand that Vanderbilt used to use it for private car races .
Speaker 3Yeah , good to be a Vanderbilt . Yeah , all right .
Speaker 1Last last question Favorite Mets player of all time , rusty Stout . I didn't even have to think , wow , did not see that .
Speaker 3All right , listen , brian . Thank you so much . By the way , you are officially now a co-op condo insider , so congratulations , thank you . That's all for today's episode . A big thank you to Brian Sokoloff for joining us and not only sharing his experiences growing up and leading being a leader at Bell Park Gardens , but also giving us a glimpse into his work as an attorney and , of course , his Queen's Root , richard's favorite topic . If you enjoyed today's conversation , please don't forget to subscribe so that you don't miss future conversations with leaders and neighbors shaping the world of call-up and condo living . I'm Jeffrey Maisel , and this has been the Call-Up and Condo Insider . Thanks for listening and see you next time .