Mr. Jelani (“Jay”) Williams has over eighteen years of experience as a Senior Property Manager including hands on property management in the Northeast with a current concentration in New York. His management philosophy is based upon a model of service, working hand in hand with his team members to better facilitate the needs of the communities he works with. Knowing the City inside and out, Mr. Williams has worked with Summit properties, clients and communities in Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx and Manhattan. He is dedicated to adding value for the clients and residents of the properties Summit manages, while enhancing the communities and neighborhoods he and Summit touch every day. As the new President of Summit, he understands that overseeing capital improvements and their expenditures are vital to the overall health of any building. It is equally important, with the aging infrastructure of most New York based multi-family properties, to exercise prudence when carrying them out. Through strategic planning, general building upkeep and capital improvements can be achieved while maintaining a balanced budget. This avoids potential financial hardship to the corporation and keeps the impact to the owners’ pockets to a minimum. Having an experienced and competent management team is essential to the success of all housing management platforms, from the Upper West Side to South Jamaica.

Mr. Williams began his career managing over 400 units of privately-owned rentals properties in Queens and Harlem. Throughout his first years in the business, he was recognized and then recruited by MSI, now Summit, to manage nearly 300 units in Brooklyn. Just a short time later, Mr. Williams became the Assistant General Manager of Rochdale Village, the second largest privately held cooperative in the world. And now, eight years since accepting the roll of Assistant General Manager he and Alex Freedman would purchase the management company from their former mentors, becoming the new owners of Summit. His experience and years in the industry have given him a comprehensive understanding of housing management practices which include rent collection, capital project management, apartment sales, marketing, budgeting, financial reporting, security and managing retail tenants.

One of Mr. Williams’ many strengths include handling day-to-day operations. From residential tenant/cooperator relations and community programming to employee management, he has a wide vision to identify potential issues and address them ahead of time. Mr. Williams’ foresight helps to mitigate risks to the board, the residents and the community. Complementary to his operational and people skills, he has a unique and widely recognized talent for identifying opportunities that add incremental value, create/present detailed presentation material in an accessible way for owners/tenants/cooperators and address weaknesses for clients.

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Expanding beyond his real estate management expertise, Mr. Williams is also skilled in data processing, programming and design.  As a graduate of Pace University with a Bachelor of Arts in Computer Science, he was awarded an Associate Fellowship at Pace’s Dyson School of Art & Science.