Condo Media - January 2016 - 56

Ask a Busy Person
Brookline Bank was one of the first
in Massachusetts to offer loans to
community associations. How did
that come about?
I don't remember the first
association loan we did. My guess is a
commercial real estate customer came
to us and asked if there was anything
we could do for a condominium
association that needed help. It was
in the early 1990s, and Doug Stevens
(a bank colleague) and I didn't know
anything about condominium lending.
But we saw an opportunity to develop
a new business line. So we took a close
look at the mechanics and the risks,
and we didn't see any downside to
doing it. After a few loans, we realized
that lending to community associations
was like lending to municipalities. It
was really good business, particularly
when the superlien law was enacted in
Massachusetts.
How did you become actively
involved in CAI-NE?
An attorney I knew called and
said an organization I never heard of
wanted to have a banker on its board.
He asked if I'd sit in on a meeting
and consider it. I did and decided the
association would be a good business
connection for the bank. The more
involved I got in the association, the
more I recognized its value and the
more I wanted to focus on supporting
and strengthening the organization.
What have you learned about
condominium finance or about
condominium operations that would
be useful for board members or
managers to understand?
The key to running a successful
association is good communication. The boards and management
companies that do well are all good
communicators. They communicate
effectively with each other and with
owners. They also communicate
clearly and honestly. They're willing
to address issues straight on without
sugarcoating them.

CONDOMEDIA

What do you see as the
biggest challenge facing
the condominium industry?
The attack on the condominium
superlien, without question.
What achievement are
you most proud of?
Helping to bring
WHAT LIES
Condo Media into the
AHEAD
chapter. Another entity
used to pay CAI-NE to
publish and distribute
the magazine, but we
saw an opportunity
to take it over. Having
the magazine in-house
generates the cash flow that allows the
chapter to support a terrific staff and to
do some great things.
AGING STRUCTURES,
TECHNOLOGY, AND
LEGAL TRENDS WILL
CHALLENGE CONDOS

BAD
RECEPTION

HAM RADIO LEGISLATION
RESURFACES WITH
MORE SPONSORS

PROVIDING
CLARITY

WES BLAIR
Senior Vice President, Brookline Bank
2016 President, CAI-NE
Wes Blair has consistently
said "yes" at the right times: yes to a
summer position at Brookline Bank,
yes to a request to approve a loan
(one of the first) to a Massachusetts
condominium association, and yes to a
request to serve on the CAI-NE board.
He said "no" at some crucial times as
well, most significantly, when he chose
to be a banker rather than a clergyman.
"Ultimately, I decided that being
involved with the church as a layperson
and in banking professionally provided
a good balance for me," Blair says.
His banking career, however, got off
to a rocky start. After laid off from his
job in 1991, Blair struggled to find a fulltime position. He accepted what was
supposed to be a summer job at Brookline Bank, but when the season ended,
they asked him to stay on as a contract
employee to help the bank prepare for
upcoming regulatory exams.
This turned out to be another
fortuitous "yes." The contract position
morphed quickly into a full-time
job helping the bank burnish its
community investment record. Blair
moved eventually from residential
lending into commercial real estate,
"and that was where I got hooked," he
says. "I loved everything about it-the
numbers, the products, the people."

WHAT YOU NEED TO
KNOW ABOUT 'KNOW
BEFORE YOU OWE'

CM1215_Cover- edit.indd 1

What would it surprise
people to know about you?
In addition to the fact that I used to
play in rock and roll bands when I was
younger? People who think of me primarily as a condominium lender probably would also be surprised to know that
the condominium association business
isn't my primary focus; it's really more of
an avocation for me. I'm responsible for
a $300 million commercial real
estate loan portfolio on top
of that.

Because you're
planning to
retire in a few years,
you've said this will be
your last term as president
and on the CAI-NE board. Do you
have any particular goals in mind?
One priority will be to take a good
hard look at the committee structure
and determine if we have the proper
mix of committees to move the
chapter forward. But I don't have
any sweeping goals. My feeling is, if
it ain't broke, don't fix it. And there's
nothing broken about the chapter. Far
from it.

The Official
Publication of

www.caine.org
11/6/15 9:41 AM

http://www.caine.org

Condo Media - January 2016

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