Lancaster's gentle touch put city's house in order.

Imagine the predicament a few years ago of Manhattan developers just finished with construction on a building. High interest construction loans bearing down, developers understandably want to minimize the time between the construction's completion and the occupancy of the property. But in order to do so, an essential document must first be obtained, a certificate of occupancy that is granted by the New York City Department of Buildings (DOB).

The only problem is, even only a few years ago the inspectors at the DOB who inspect a building and, upon approval, issue the necessary certificate, were routinely backed up for weeks and sometimes months.

Worse still, once they did arrive, there was no telling what issue they might take with the completed building because the DOB at that time didn't issue clear guidelines for how to meet its codes and properly correct violations. Once a builder fixed a group of violations another inspector might revisit the property and find a bundle more.

Precedents for violations and their mitigation set by past rulings by the DOB as well as a standardized method for gaining approval for the certificate of occupancy--a document that is required for every building in the city--were obscured behind a departmental cloak of bureaucratic inefficiency and corruption.

Especially detrimental was the latter, which encouraged a shadowy world of bribery, instigated by both inspectors and developers, which in turn began to impart a wild and wooly aura on the Manhattan construction industry and, according to some, discourage some developers from taking on projects in the city.

Enter Patricia Lancaster, who was appointed Commissioner of the DOB in April 2002 by Mayor Michael Bloomberg. In only three years she has transformed an agency that by even her own account was in the doldrums, into one that can now boast efficiency, expediency and integrity.

It didn't come without what Lancaster lightheartedly called some "tender, loving care," and a tough, proactive stand on the issues surrounding the DOB's history of corruption.

"I'm not going to comment on how much bribery there was but let's just say it was happening," Lancaster said. "One of the first things that I did when I got here was to sit down with Manhattan district attorney Robert Morgenthal and get a feel from him of how corruption is perpetrated, the reasons for corruption. What he told me was that the department was opaque, that is there were no set standards and the process was very subjective, so any individual inspector could, if that person wanted to, exercise tremendous power and, consequently, there was the potential for abuse."

Lancaster combated the problem by spearheading an operation in which 19 inspectors were caught soliciting or accepting bribes. But more importantly, she has opened the department up, standardized its codes and regulations, offered its forms online and made documents like the certificate of occupancy more accessible and clear in its requirements. On the wall of her office at 280 Broadway in the heart of Downtown, there is evidence of how those requirements have been streamlined for efficiency.

Mounted on poster board were over a dozen 8 x 11 sheets of paper each depicting a segment of the elaborate pipeline of steps necessary to satisfy the qualifications for the certificate of occupancy. Its prominent placement on the grand wooden walls of here stately office which overlooks City Hall Park, examples the personal role Lancaster has taken in analyzing the DOB's documents and eliminating redundant or otherwise unnecessary steps. Her participation in nitty-gritty tasks like this has yielded palpable results.

Instead of response times that measure in weeks or even months, the department can now have inspectors on the scene of a building within three days, according to Lancaster. This major overhaul of the DOB's performance has allowed it to contribute significantly to the city's economic development and play a more meaningful role on issues pertaining to some of the city's best-known trophy properties.

"When we're better, the entire city does better because we're not responsible for holding up developers from getting tenants in their buildings," Lancaster said. "In fact, we're helping make that legal process an easier one, which means that developers won't have to pay interest to the tune of tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of dollars a month. I think that in turn better encourages development here that will lure more big companies to make New York their home. And that drives the economy, so we play a vital role and it's a role that the DOB now takes very seriously."

In a recently begun construction plan to better utilize its Plaza, the GM building called on the DOB to approve plans to expand some of its internal mechanical rooms. Conscious that such buildings operate under the duress of extremely tight cap rates and depend on the near perfect execution of a creative operational strategy, Lancaster's DOB reviewed and ultimately approved the plans swiftly.

The DOB played a role also in the recent sale of the MetLife building. "There was a question in that case if it was legal to keep the MetLife logo on the top of the building," Lancaster said. "While there was a stipulation in the sales agreement where the buyer would sign a contract to keep the MetLife logo, we had to determine if such a contractual provision was valid. We did find it to be valid, which helped the sale go smoothly."

"I think at this point our image has changed where the industry really knows it can depend on us to do our part and get things done."

Adding to the initial struggle of reviving the ailing DOB at the beginning of her tenure in 2002, Lancaster was met with a department that was 25% understaffed. Lancaster knew that, in order to get the caliber of personnel necessary for achieving excellence, she would personally have to take a hand in recruiting and entice talent from the private sector where she herself spent the bulk of her career.

The gusto with which she expressed the benefits of entering into public service was enough to bring in significant talent.

"It's such a fantastic opportunity, I was telling everybody I knew who I thought was good and could be a potential candidate for key positions here," Lancaster said. "I think my enthusiasm was contagious. When I first was offered the position at the DOB, a lot of people told me not to take it, they said it was an organization heading for dissolution. But now I was convincing people to come in and there was a ton of energy to revive and that's what we've done."

Lancaster's experience in both the public and private sectors made her a perfect candidate for Commissioner of the DOB. She has been a project manager for a wide array of construction projects, including office buildings and college dormitories, to police precincts and firehouses, hospitals and residential developments.

Prior to her position as Commissioner, Mayor Rudolph Giuliani appointed her the Deputy Commissioner for Design and Construction. In the years between her city government positions she balanced operating her own firm, the Lancaster Group, which offers project management services, and consulting for real estate developer LCOR Inc. At the latter she was a vice president in charge of public and private development and managed a portfolio of more than $2 billion in public and private construction projects.

"I know what the private sector wants and I know what the public sector needs and where those two can meet, that's my market niche," Lancaster said. "We've accomplished a lot in the past three years and, if Mayor Bloomberg is reelected, I look forward to embarking on another four years with the department because I still feel like I have a lot to do and accomplish here."