Robert LiMandri, the first deputy commissioner for operations at the city’s Buildings Department will head the department on an interim basis now that commissioner Patricia Lancaster, has resigned.
LiMandri, an engineer, has worked at the department since 2002 and oversees its enforcement and forensic work. Bloomberg spokesperson Stu Loeser told The Real Deal that LiMandri will manage the department with the mayor’s confidence.
“That’s what first deputy commissioners are for,” Loeser said at a Harlem ribbon-cutting where the mayor did not take questions about Lancaster.
LiMandri’s biography, which is posted on the DOB’s Web site, cites his efforts to scale back on the items that developers submit to get certificates of occupancy and his expansion of “inspection sweeps” in “areas ripe for noncompliance.”
It is not clear when Bloomberg will appointment Lancaster’s permanent replacement or whether he will tap someone from within the agency or an outsider.
Whoever he selects will have no doubt be expected to stem the construction accidents that incited widespread criticism of the agency’s oversight, observers say. That criticism has come to a head since the crane collapse on East 51st Street that killed seven people last month.
According to the bio, LiMandri was a director at Real Foundations, a management-consulting firm, where he counseled real estate companies in areas including leasing, deal analysis, management and construction before joining the agency.
Before that, from 1997 to 2000, he was a vice president at Jones Lang LaSalle, where he was a manager and consultant and was responsible for Class A office buildings, including 320 and 399 Park Avenue and Citicorp Center. And, from 1990 to 1997, he was “managing the delivery of services for the Science and Engineering buildings” at Columbia University.
He also received his masters degree in real estate from New York University.