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By Luke Stafford
Zenger News
Bounty hunters, burglars and broken windows bedeviled the largely low-income residents of Kansas City, Kan. Royal Ridge Apartments, part of a pattern of complaints at properties in a portfolio stretching across 15 states. Tenants said management has long ignored their complaints, while owners said they were not aware of any.
The complex is owned by Eighteen Capital Group, which owns nearly 7,000 apartment units in 33 properties, according to its website. Principally owned by Scott Asner and Michael Gortenberg, the company’s website says that “residents of our properties enjoy a commitment to service and our continual efforts to innovate and improve their living experience.”
Some residents see it differently, according to Apartments.com reviews and a Zenger News investigation.
“There were many bounty hunters that were coming in and out of our building,” Caelyn Faulconer, who lived in the Kansas City complex in 2016 and 2017, told Zenger about bail bondsman’s hired muscle. “We had someone try to break into our apartment in the middle of the night. Management wouldn’t do anything because we weren’t physically hurt.”
“Since we have been here there has been a double homicide, apartments being broken into, and cars stolen,” Faulconer said in a 2016 review, while she still was a tenant. “Last week I had someone try to break into our apartment and we had to call the police. There are so many more complaints and overall this has been the worst experience ever!”
Faulconer isn’t the only tenant with complaints. Renters reviewing the complex posted photos of what appear to be toxic mold and strewn garbage. Others complained of chronic crime, ranging from vandalism to break-ins and burglary.
The company appears to have repeatedly failed to make repairs or meet all government codes, leaving low-income residents frustrated and angry, according to a Zenger investigation that included interviews with residents of Eighteen Capital Group properties and a review of legal filings from across the country.
Royal Ridge suffered a homicide every year there from 2016 to 2019, local television news reports show. At least 24 criminal incidents were reported at the complex in the past year, according to Kansas City Police Department records.
“There was always plumbing issues in the building and, for a month straight, it smelled like there was a dead body in the hallway,” former Royal Ridge tenant Cassandra Lyons said. “I never in my life had an experience like this with an apartment complex … I would not recommend anyone live here.”
Dozens of tenant reviews on apartments.com, Google and apartmentratings.com allege dilapidated and dangerous units, rat and roach infestations, run-down common areas and nonfunctioning air conditioning or hot water.
The company’s Windbury building, in northwest San Antonio, was one of many apartment complexes featured in a 2018 San Antonio Express-News article about deteriorating apartments for refugees from war-torn countries.
“Since 2014, tenants have filed more than 100 complaints to the city, describing flooded apartments, collapsing ceilings, a lack of smoke detectors and air conditioning that doesn’t work for weeks at a time, city records show,” the Express-News reported. “During a visit in late May, rat traps were strewn about, [and] a reeking dumpster was swarming with flies…”
Zenger did not independently confirm this account.
Residents of the Oaks of Baytown Apartments, in Baytown, Texas, on the upper edge of Galveston Bay, filed police reports alleging break-ins, burglary, drug offenses and car theft.
Former tenants also complained about Eighteen Capital Group’s Indianapolis property, Timber Point. “I don’t have many positive things to say about my experience living there,” former tenant Lasondra Land told Zenger. “I’d do anything I can to ensure other people don’t get stuck living there like I did.”
Asner and Gortenburg’s attorney, Dan Blegen, said his clients were unaware of the accusation that they were slumlords. He did not respond to additional questions about the negative reviews that have been posted about their properties online or the issues related to crime.
“We are very pleased to see our communities grow and develop at such a rapid rate,” Asner, the firm’s founding principal, said in a 2019 press release. “The continued expansion of our property assets is a sign that Eighteen Capital Group is making smart investments for our firm’s capital partners and clients, and we look forward to even better numbers in the future.”
Even as Eighteen Capital Group’s tenants say they receive late or no response to their complaints, the company has been more responsive in seeking to collect back rent. Court records show Eighteen Capital Group or its portfolio of companies have filed more than 1,000 civil actions against current and former residents of its apartment buildings.
Twitter photos: https://twitter.com/kbanksreports/status/783044531558027264
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