Tenants of 7 houses forced to move out to make way for City Place apartments
Tenants of seven houses that could be demolished soon to make way for the controversial City Place apartments in Ann Arbor are scrambling to find new places to live.
A number of them talked with AnnArbor.com this past week, most indicating they've been told by landlord Alex de Parry they have until the end of the month to vacate the rental units. And most of them aren't happy about the situation.
"We're all students. Why would you kick students out a month into the school year?" said Neil Matouka, who was leaving one of the houses on South Fifth Avenue on Wednesday afternoon to check out a new apartment.
Nick Collins, a University of Michigan graduate student, is one of several tenants being forced to move out of their rental houses as the City Place project moves ahead.
Ryan J. Stanton | AnnArbor.com
Multiple tenants said it's been hard trying to find another apartment in town this time of year.
"I've been searching all over the place," said one of the tenants who asked to remain anonymous. "There's nothing available right now. Even up toward Briarwood Mall, those apartments up there are all filled and that's way off campus."
De Parry recently sold the houses to a new company called City Place Ann Arbor LLC, and developer Jeff Helminski of Campus Village Communities is now pushing forward with the project. Helminski is awaiting approval of minor site plan changes right now.
De Parry, who is not involved in City Place at this point, said he's not at liberty to talk about the project, but he said all tenants should be moved out by mid-October at the latest. He said several of the apartments already have been vacated.
"I'm trying to work with all the tenants," he said. "Some of our residents have been with us for a long time and we're doing everything we can to assist them. We're assisting in moving costs, buyouts. It's not a happy day for me. This wasn't supposed to happen this way."
De Parry said most tenants had a paragraph in their leases that allowed for early termination, and most of them were notified July 15 depending on how their lease was worded.
"Quite frankly, a lot of this got fast-tracked and things started happening pretty quickly," he said. "I feel not right. I want to do right by the people."
Matouka said he was aware City Place could go forward when he signed a month-to-month lease starting in August, but he said he doesn't think some tenants knew.
"The girls who moved in here had absolutely no idea there was a possibility they could get kicked out," he said. "They had no idea about construction. The first time they heard about it was when he started threatening to kick them out, and then when people from Campus Village came by and said, 'We're the new owners. Congratulations, you're gone.'"
Another tenant, a Ph.D. student at U-M, said he and his roommate were abroad for the summer when they found out in July their lease starting Sept. 1 had been terminated.
"We were both overseas when we heard from another person on the block about this notice having gone out that all of our leases were terminated," he said. "I actually had to contact the landlord and he was very cryptic in all of his e-mails about what exactly was going on."
Tenants said they were told they could stay living in the houses on a month-to-month basis, but with no guarantee of how long. They recently found out they have until Sept. 30.
Wendy Rampson, the city's planning manager, said demolition permits can be approved once all utilities have been shut off and any outstanding charges owed to the city have been paid.
One of the seven houses that could be demolished this fall.
Ryan J. Stanton | AnnArbor.com
The project includes two new apartment buildings containing 23 six-bedroom units and one five-bedroom unit, along with a 36-space parking lot.
Heritage Row, a more-favored development proposal offered by de Parry in late 2009, promised to preserve the seven houses while building new apartments behind them. But four council members — Mike Anglin, Sabra Briere, Carsten Hohnke and Stephen Kunselman — blocked Heritage Row's approval last year, steering the developer back toward City Place.
In an ironic twist, Anglin's stepson, U-M graduate student Nick Collins, is one of the tenants now being kicked out as City Place moves forward.
"This is the worst time of the year that this could possibly happen for me," Collins said during an interview with AnnArbor.com on his porch this past week.
Due to extenuating circumstances, Collins said he worked out a deal with de Parry allowing him to stay until Oct. 15, but with an extra financial incentive if he moves out by Sept. 30.
Collins said he's not fully convinced City Place is going forward. He suspects this could be an elaborate attempt by the developers to leverage support for reconsideration of Heritage Row.
"My suspicion is that they've all realized, 'Look, we never convinced anyone that we weren't bluffing, so if we can cough up the lost income to Alex for the next four or five months from him kicking people out, they're all going to believe it,'" Collins said.
Collins and other tenants agreed the century-old houses they live in have seen better days and that de Parry hasn't invested enough in keeping them maintained.
"They're dumps," said one tenant. "My place leaks, the sinks don't work half the time, they're in rough shape. They do need to be updated. But maybe he figured they were going to get torn down so he didn't want to put the money into fixing them up."
Nonetheless, the same tenant said it'll be a loss to the neighborhood to have the houses come down for City Place. He thinks they could be fixed up to look nice.
"This is actually like the town part of Ann Arbor, and to start putting in those kinds of buildings right here in this area, I don't think it'd be aesthetically appealing," he said. "I think Ann Arbor has been known as a historical and kind of a quant town, but it's slowly being changed into East Lansing, and I don't think it meshes well with the aesthetics of the other houses. But I guess money talks and it's just a business decision to do that."
He doesn't blame the developers for the situation, though.
"I think this rests mostly on City Council at this point," he said. "They made a stupid mistake by not voting for Heritage Row. So it's kind of on them right now and they should be kicking themselves, the ones that didn't vote for it, because now we're in this situation."
Ryan J. Stanton covers government and politics for AnnArbor.com. Reach him at ryanstanton@annarbor.com or 734-623-2529. You also can follow him on Twitter or subscribe to AnnArbor.com's e-mail newsletters.
Comments
yoni
Sat, Oct 1, 2011 : 4:22 p.m.
the worst part came when we were moving out - the clause also set a gradual compensation if the pre termination is used (note that nowhere in the lease are the tenants given the option of pre terminating it, only landlord) - we came and asked him for our one month rent (if notified by July 15 we get one month, after July 15 a month and a half, and Alex sent of course the email on July 15) - Alex was completely taking by surprise by this - saying that we would need to set an appointment and that they are swamped with work with all people leaving (big surprise - you just threw us all out!) - he also just got back from vacation - we decided not to hand over the keys until we receive our compensation (the clause says: half of the compensation at time of notification - never happened - and another half upon leaving - never happened), we pressured him for another two weeks or so - at some point, we were notified that the checks were ready - we came to office only to discover that it was our deposit and cleaning fee, not the compensation - I started arguing with Alex about this - and then, he showed he was all about "doing right with the people" - he said that actually the problem is that he never signed the lease, so we have no signed lease - I was amazed by this - we signed the lease with his assistant in his office, he wasn't there at the time, she said he'll sign it - he never did or so he argued - I told him that I don't care since we have emails from him acknowledging the contract between us and I asked him if he had other leases with tenants not signed by him and if this is what he usually does to get out of leases? - he backed down from this and promised to pay, a week and a half later we got the compensation check (one month). This has been a really horrible experience for us and the worst was discovering how much power he has as landlord, and how little we do as tenants. Really sad for our beautiful home on S. Fifth.
yoni
Sat, Oct 1, 2011 : 4:08 p.m.
"I feel not right. I want to do right by the people." - this is probably the best quote by Alex I've ever heard, Alex did anything but right with us - his tenants. We had an amazing apartment, the best student apartment, which we started leasing from him on May 2010 - there were rumors about a project but Alex never said anything to us so we assumed it wasn't in the horizons - we signed a renewal lease in February with him assuming that if he's renewing the lease for another year he's intending to pursue this lease to the end, we trusted him so we didn't pay much attention to the new clause at the back of lease that basically allowed him to pre terminate the lease anytime - we were already a few months into our lease when in July 15 we got a cryptic and ambiguous email from Alex (he didn't even say when is the date for leaving - just two lines...), he knew that as all advanced students, we were overseas and had subtenants - we had the worst month searching for an apartment from overseas - almost impossible in itself in mid July, thankfully we were able to find a place and move out - Alex said he wanted to help and promised to speak to landlords for us, he came up with one terrible apartment that he himself leases for a friend - not much help. He didn't understand why we were mad at him - claiming that he did not know in February when signing with us where things are heading - which is impossible - why change the terms of our lease otherwise? why not tell us that there's a chance this might happen and allow us to decide for our selves if we want to take our chances or find a new place, when it was still possible?
Long Time No See
Tue, Sep 27, 2011 : 9:12 p.m.
Mr. de Parry's crocodile tears shouldn't be fooling anyone. It seems that he failed to properly maintain the houses, which seems to indicate that he intended to tear them down from the very beginning. What is happening now seems to be exactly what he had planned, so his disingenuous hand-wringing is particularly grating. He started the ball rolling and deserves the lion's share of the blame for this horrible project.
John Q
Mon, Sep 26, 2011 : 3:10 a.m.
The takeaway from the comments is that de Perry didn't maintain his rentals and that the out-of-town developers are to blame for destroying these houses. Quit trying to deflect the blame at the City Council. No one is forcing anyone to demolish anything. That's a choice being made by these developers.
Phil Dokas
Sun, Sep 25, 2011 : 3:45 a.m.
"This wasn't supposed to happen this way." Cry me a river, Alex de Parry! Poor Alex de Parry, he was truly hoodwinked by that mean old developer who cooked up the City Place plan and made sure it would just squeak by City Council because it's legally up to snuff even though no one liked it! Too bad Alex de Parry -IS- that developer.
rusty shackelford
Sat, Sep 24, 2011 : 10:52 p.m.
Ryan, you're a good reporter but you buried the lede at the very end of the story. None of this would have happened if council hadn't been acting in bad faith during the entire process.
Andy
Sat, Sep 24, 2011 : 9:48 p.m.
Am I the only one who finds it an interesting coincidence that Mr. Anglin's stepson ended up in one of these units when Anglin has publicly opposed the project for at least a year?
andralisa
Sat, Sep 24, 2011 : 6:51 p.m.
Did you vote in the last city council election? If not you best do it this time!!!!! These people are idiots
Laurel
Sat, Sep 24, 2011 : 6:47 p.m.
I have a hard time sympathizing for the tenants. They should have already known because this has been a long running issue and if they didn't know then it is clear they didn't do their research. Maybe this will be a valued lesson for them.
Dot
Sat, Sep 24, 2011 : 5:24 p.m.
"... four council members — Mike Anglin, Sabra Briere, Carsten Hohnke and Stephen Kunselman — blocked Heritage Row's approval last year, steering the developer back toward City Place" In an ironic twist, Anglin's stepson, U-M graduate student Nick Collins, is one of the tenants now being kicked out as City Place moves forward. "I think this rests mostly on City Council at this point," he said. "They made a stupid mistake by not voting for Heritage Row. So it's kind of on them right now and they should be kicking themselves, the ones that didn't vote for it, because now we're in this situation." Am I missing something or did Nick Collins say his step-dad, Mike Anglin, made stupid mistake and should be kicking himself? Wonder where he'll sit at the holiday dinner table this year :?
Ryan J. Stanton
Sat, Sep 24, 2011 : 11:15 p.m.
You're incorrectly attributing a quote from another tenant who spoke anonymously to Nick Collins.
Peter Baker
Sat, Sep 24, 2011 : 7:14 p.m.
Nope, I did. My bad.
Peter Baker
Sat, Sep 24, 2011 : 6:39 p.m.
Yes, you missed something.
xmo
Sat, Sep 24, 2011 : 3:38 p.m.
On the bright side, there will be more affordable student housing. The new apartments will be "GREENER" ,saving the planet, Nicer, so students will have better housing and safer, since the new apartments will have all of the latest safety features plus updated electrical, plumbing etc. So, Let's celebrate the new,safer and "GREENER" housing that the students will have!
umichjim
Sat, Sep 24, 2011 : 11:53 p.m.
Affordable housing is one thing, but they don't need to be on Fifth Avenue.
ChunkyPastaSauce
Sat, Sep 24, 2011 : 6:18 p.m.
Tearing down functional and improvable housing is not green. The amount of waste produced, energy expended, and materials used far outweighs the whats saved with a new building.The green thing would be to improve insulation and possibly upgrade the hvac system within the existing housing.
zags
Sat, Sep 24, 2011 : 3:16 p.m.
I own several turn of the century homes that when I bought them where in a serious state of neglect. It took a while, but all are rentals and meet City code. It didn't cost a fortune to fix and maintain these lovely old houses. What it does take is a love for the history and workmanship that is contained in these older homes. I actually consider myself more of a caretaker than an owner. It's not for everyone. It breaks my heart to see these money grabbers come in and essentially steal from the community. That's what was happening to the Old West Side before it was saved from the 8 unit concrete box developers. And by the way, the old restored houses are always the first to rent for the most money. When they say "they don't make 'em like they used to" they are exactly right. People appreciate 9' ceilings, hardwood floors, beautiful moldings, and true style and craftsmanship. Don't believe me? Go on the Old West Side homes tour this weekend. You won't be touring anything that looks like "City Place".
ChunkyPastaSauce
Sat, Sep 24, 2011 : 2:50 p.m.
People vist and live here because they like the ann arbor feel. I feel poorly handled projects like this erodes what makes ann arbor different in a way that is extremely hard to undo. Be aware of your city reps and vote.
zax
Sat, Sep 24, 2011 : 2:02 p.m.
If the houses were in that bad of shape then they should have never been allowed to make a nickel off of rent until they were brought up to code. Shame on our community for not taking a stronger stand against letting the houses become so broken down and yet they rake in profits for the landlords. This is an area where our local lawmakers need to step up and step in. Maybe many of them are friends of the landlords.
Vivienne Armentrout
Sat, Sep 24, 2011 : 2:01 p.m.
Rather than pointing at councilmembers who refused to be bullied into approving a project that did not meet PUD criteria, recall that this could have been prevented with approval of the Germantown Historic District. See <a href="http://www.annarbor.com/news/germantown-neighborhood-undeserving-of-historic-district-status-ann-arbor-city-council-decides/">http://www.annarbor.com/news/germantown-neighborhood-undeserving-of-historic-district-status-ann-arbor-city-council-decides/</a> Councilmembers Tony Derezinski, Margie Teall, Sandi Smith, Stephen Rapundalo, Marcia Higgins and Christopher Taylor voted against the historic district.
yua
Sun, Sep 25, 2011 : 2:49 a.m.
And, I recall that one councilmember who represents Germantown was not present at the vote. Maybe he has his legitimate reasons, but absent an explanation, that doesn't give me a lot of confidence in the proposed district.
Goober
Sat, Sep 24, 2011 : 3:18 p.m.
I would like to see a table or spread sheet of all city council members and our mayor showing all issues voted on for the past 3 years or so. This would allow us to determine and decide who to replace and who to re-elect. Thanks Vivienne.
hut hut
Sat, Sep 24, 2011 : 2:41 p.m.
From Postema's office to our ears. A decree from on high. Affirmed by those listed above.
pooh bear
Sat, Sep 24, 2011 : 1:59 p.m.
are there any architecture students out there who'd be willing to measure and photograph the houses (exterior and interior) before they are demolished? Or any one for that matter?
cgerben
Sat, Sep 24, 2011 : 1:48 p.m.
I'm in complete agreement with users who are upset that historic houses are being razed to put up student apartments that don't seem to fit the character or need of the neighborhood. That being said, though, my guess is that most of the users here have not actually been in any of the houses in question. The truth is, if the houses weren't razed they might have had to be condemned if the level of neglect kept up. Alex de Parry took my wife and I on a personal tour of three of the buildings and each one was more decrepit than the last: holes in walls, faulty sinks and wiring, and uneven foundations. Though the facades have been kept relatively clean, the insides of these houses would shock most of the users calling to save them. Users should know the whole story before jumping into reactionary fits like the ones seen in this Comments section. This article at least does a good job of highlighting that even some of the residents see the houses as less than desirable.
yua
Sun, Sep 25, 2011 : 2:46 a.m.
Well, de Parry did propose renovating them--that was what Heritage Row was. Heritage Row did include two four-story buildings in the center of the block, but I guess the Hamilton street residents (??) were against them, hence the renovations were denied. So I'm not sure the comments here are inappropriate. Council turned down the renovation project that the owner offered. Then they voted down the Germantown historic district that would have helped guide any renovation within current zoning (a vote that Anglin was absent for, btw, despite the fact that Germantown falls within his ward). It seems that council deserves their share of criticism for opening the path towards demolition. It seems to me that the reactionary voices are those that support our city council's pro-demolition actions, rather than those that criticize them.
cgerben
Sat, Sep 24, 2011 : 2:03 p.m.
*"my wife and me," not "I"...and a comma after "razed." Who needs the ability to delete/edit a post when you can just add unnecessary copyediting as a reply, eh?
Rob T
Sat, Sep 24, 2011 : 1:46 p.m.
I looked at renting here a few years ago and they were very up-front about the pending development and the terms of any future buyout. I hope that the current tenants were treated similarly.
gsorter
Sat, Sep 24, 2011 : 1:44 p.m.
Such irony that the so called historic district proposal actually is forcing development! Now that bureaucratic energy can be focused on really important things, like all those unsightly split rail fences and overly fancy doors cluttering our neighborhoods
jen777
Sat, Sep 24, 2011 : 1:13 p.m.
I find the lack of preservation and forcing landlords to maintain these houses sad. We are building all these boxy ugly apartment buildings and have lost any sense of character. Add in teh ugly high rise overpriced condos at Ashley and Huron. Then add the lack of shopping, overpriced , very average restaurants and Ann Arbor has lost it charm.
zags
Sat, Sep 24, 2011 : 12:55 p.m.
A sad day for all. Unless you are the out of town developer who only sees the $$ signs. Screw the charming mid western town with great old architecture. I find it ironic that in the 50's and 60's downtown was covered in an ugly "modern" look and what happened 40 to 50 years later? Building owners removed the ugly modern facades to return their buildings to their original turn of the century look. Once these buildings are gone , they're gone forever. While were at it, let's sell the Kempf house. Looks like a great place for a 13 story building full of 6 bedroom units for young professionals.
a2cents
Sat, Sep 24, 2011 : 12:54 p.m.
In an ironic twist, Anglin's stepson, U-M graduate student Nick Collins, is one of the tenants now being kicked out as City Place moves forward. Of course any conflict of interest was divulged... ?
zax
Sat, Sep 24, 2011 : 12:38 p.m.
Those houses should be saved. put a project in the student ghetto why don't you? Many of those houses need demolition. remember the names of the council members for future elections.
15crown00
Sat, Sep 24, 2011 : 12:31 p.m.
how about just leveling the whole city including the large part of it that DOESN'T pay property taxes and rebuild it all.
MichMom
Sat, Sep 24, 2011 : 12:46 p.m.
Yes that makes sense since the city would be just fine without the university....get a grip...there would be no Ann Arbor without the U. Good luck with that plan.
Jimmy McNulty
Sat, Sep 24, 2011 : 12:20 p.m.
I'm curious as to the terms of the leases. Usually lease terms favor the landlord, but I wonder what recourse is available for the students? Were they month-to-month leases or for a full year? What would happen if the situations were reversed, and the students needed to break their leases early? They would lose any security deposit at the very least, and could likely be taken to court.
discgolfgeek
Sat, Sep 24, 2011 : 12:17 p.m.
I don't live in the city limits but if I did, I'd be looking to recall the &^#%(%#s that rejected Heritage Row.
hut hut
Sat, Sep 24, 2011 : 2:36 p.m.
So your opinion means nothing in this case. Why don't you start the recall petitions?
bruno_uno
Sat, Sep 24, 2011 : 11:54 a.m.
a b c ya
hermhawk
Sat, Sep 24, 2011 : 11:31 a.m.
For City Council to reject a project that would have preserved the houses involved for a project that does just the opposite smack of the kind of legislation enacted in Lansing so far in 2011. Takeaways seem to be the order of the day throughout the entire nation, except for the rich and the super rich.
godsbreath64
Tue, Sep 27, 2011 : 12:20 a.m.
Once again your Goob-ance, you are wrong. Not exactly a surprise.Idiopathic legislation is Michigan most profitable industry. But you keep on a pluckin' anyway.
Hot Sam
Sat, Sep 24, 2011 : 12:48 p.m.
I agree it's not the same...the "takeaways" are really the government taking from all of us for things the rich used to pay for...public art...research and development...venture funding... Everyone wants to blame the rich while forgetting the government involvement... It's like a game with a dirty referee and the winning team gets all the blame...
Goober
Sat, Sep 24, 2011 : 12:08 p.m.
Nope, not the same. The current group in Lansing is trying to save and improve our state economy. In Ann Arbor, this project will neither improve our community nor save our economy. These Ann Arbor activities demonstrate poor judgement on the part of our city leaders. If it is not art, then they are totally lost.