City: Speed up transfer of Colonial Village
Columbus officials file motion to remove owners
The Columbus City Attorney’s office has requested a judge remove the owners of an apartment complex on the East Side with a history of issues related to building code violations, sanitation and security.
In two motions filed Tuesday in Franklin County Municipal Court, City Attorney Zach Klein said the owners of the Colonial Village apartment complex – Apex Colonial Ohio LLC – have defaulted on their mortgage payments and have failed to bring the apartment complex into compliance with a judge’s order to fix code violations and other problems to make it sanitary and safe.
The apartment complex, located off East Livingston Avenue on the city’s East Side, contains 508 units and is one of the largest affordable housing providers in the city. In April, there were reported to be about 130 vacant units at the Colonial Village complex.
On Aug. 3, Judge Stephanie Mingo signed an order giving Apex Colonial 30 days to make a number of improvements to the complex. Among those improvements was the requirement to bring the complex up to city code, employ at least six full-time maintenance staff members and at least six private security officers, board up vacant units and install cameras and exterior lighting.
There have been at least three homicides reported at the complex since 2019, most recently in May, and multiple other shootings and violent crimes reported. The area where the apartment complex is located also had the highest probability in the entire city of someone being shot, according to an internal study done by Columbus police in 2020.
The Aug. 3 order, which the apartment complex’s ownership had agreed to, said that if the complex failed to come into compliance, the city could appoint a third-party receiver to improve and sell the property.
The motions filed Tuesday ask for a judge to appoint Robert Weiler Sr., a “real estate professional,” as the receiver for the apartment complex at a rate of $400 an hour, as well as appoint Hayes Gibson Property Services to work as the property manager for Weiler. The property services company has, according to the court motion, managed more than
indicator of final sales, has fallen for two straight months.
Prices rose in June by the most in Phoenix, where they soared 29.3% compared with a year earlier, followed by San Diego, with a 27.1% increase, and Seattle, at 25%.
The COVID-19 pandemic has driven many Americans to seek homes in suburban areas that provide more space and are not as congested as apartments in big cities. Yet many other homeowners have been reluctant to sell during the pandemic, and the construction of new homes has foundered amid shortages of materials, land and labor.
That left just 1.32 million existing homes for sale in July, down 12% from a year earlier. Yet there are signs that the high prices are encouraging more people to sell, as the number of available homes rose in July compared with the previous month.
Another challenge for would-be homebuyers is competition from investors, including some Wall Street firms, who are purchasing single-family homes for rent. Nearly a quarter of all existing home sales in July were allcash sales, up from 16% a year earlier.