To Own or To Rent – I Call for the Question

Tommy Roma – Northeast Region Vice President

I just returned from the Spring, 2016 executive board meeting. We meet twice a year to discuss the direction of NAPS and each spring we work on the budget for the upcoming fiscal year. At the board meeting we had a report from our Finance Committee that included a recommendation to sell our NAPS headquarters building and for us to rent out our current office space from the new owners after we sell our building.

I am a life long friend of Vince Palladino and you need to know Vince worked his butt off to get the resources together to purchase our headquarters building early in his presidency. He was so proud of our headquarters building. Do you know that the value of the building has grown from a purchase price of just under $4 million to what is now estimated to be around $16 million dollars.

In Virginia, non-profit organization’s pay no taxes on revenue they receive from leasing out space in buildings they own and our building is fully leased. It goes without saying that I was furious when this discussion started with a recommendation to sell the building and invest the money. How many of you would sell your house and then rent it back from the new owner.

As long as I am a living and breathing NAPS member you can rest assured that I will vigorously oppose any effort that may be attempted to sell our headquarters building. Our beloved President Vince Palladino is looking down from eternity wondering just what is going on in the heads of some of the leaders of this organization. I hope that you will agree with me that the sale of our building would be a terrible mistake.