Westminster walks away with eight "excellence" awards.

Westminster Communities, a diversified homebuilder in the Northeast, was honored recently with eight "2006 Awards of Excellence" from the Community Builders Association of New Jersey (CBANJ). The presentations were made at the CBANJ Awards Dinner, held at the Sheraton Parsippany Hotel.

CBANJ is a trade association serving all building-related industries, whose members are dedicated to providing affordable, well-designed, quality housing. The organization's Awards of Excellence Program recognizes those members who have "reached high levels of achievement in the fields of new home construction, remodeling, commercial building, sales and marketing."

"To be honored by your peers is the most rewarding form of recognition," noted Sam Gershwin, president of Westminster Communities. "To receive not one or two but eight awards from this organization, in so many categories, is overwhelming."

The awards received by Westminster Communities represent some of the highest honors given by the CBANJ. Waterford at East Brunswick, an elegant community for adults 55 years and older, was singled out as Best Community of the Year in the category of Active Adult Multi-Family Housing. This same community also received several other awards for its marketing efforts, including Best Adult Community Color Ad and Best Adult Community Internet Site.

Several other Westminster Communities projects also received awards. The Landings at HarborSide, a $600 million, 49-acre waterfront redevelopment in Perth Amboy, won an award for Best Color Ad by a Builder, and Wesley Grove at Asbury Park, a luxury mixed-use community now emerging at this historic resort town, won both for Best Builder Community/Project Brochure and Best Logo by a Builder.

Honored for their individual contributions were Todd Cook and Les Klein, who won the award for Best Project Managers of the Year for their work with Waterford at East Brunswick. Cook was involved from the project's inception, overseeing the major structural components and inside finishings. Klein, who joined the team in early 2005, helped coordinate a vast team of workers in completing the interior components and personalizing individual units to meet buyers' needs. Also recognized in the field of individual achievement, Joan Kochie of Builder Marketing Services, Inc., (BMS) was named Marketing Executive of the Year. BMS is Westminster Communities' affiliated marketing firm, and Kochie personally handles the marketing plans of nine different Westminster Communities projects, working with advertising agencies, media outlets, architects, production companies and sales teams.