ST. LOUIS 鈥 The controversial landlords behind Asprient, CityWide and Lux Living had their downtown properties listed for sale Thursday before a broker tried to walk back how many units were actually on the market.
Ely Walker Lofts at 1520 Washington Avenue, Artloft at 1527-35 Washington Avenue, Bell Lofts at 918-920 Olive Street, and Lofts@315 at 315 North 10th Street were all listed for sale on Salient Realty Group’s website as of Thursday afternoon. The portfolio includes more than 200 apartments, most of them condo units.
Brothers Vic Alston and Sid Chakraverty, among the most active residential developers in St. 亚洲无码, bought enough units in the last decade to dominate the condominium boards on the properties. Those boards are in charge of assessing owner fees to pay for maintenance, security and other services. One of the buildings, Ely Walker, still has dozens of condos that are independently owned, and some owners have waged a yearslong legal battle over the control of the condo board.
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The brothers鈥 downtown buildings, as well as new apartment buildings their Lux Living affiliate has developed, have drawn constant complaints from tenants. Ely Walker, especially, has been the site of a high-profile shooting and parties that led to threats from City Hall to improve security. Residents, though, say conditions haven鈥檛 improved and condo fees, which fund building maintenance, haven鈥檛 been raised since the brothers bought their 93 Ely Walker units around 2015, making it impossible to keep up with the building鈥檚 needs.
鈥淚鈥檓 not sure what buyer would come forward under this situation,鈥 said Kristin Denbow, who bought her Ely Walker unit back when the building opened in 2007.
Ely Walker listed an asking price of $12 million for the brothers鈥 93 units, or about $130,000 per unit. The entire 214-unit downtown portfolio listed an asking price of $27.8 million.
However, after the Post-Dispatch contacted the broker and the companies for comment Thursday, the listings and their asking prices were removed from Salient鈥檚 website. It鈥檚 unclear if the properties are still for sale.
Garen Lafser of Salient Realty Group, who was listed as designated broker, said only the two smallest properties, with a combined 44 units, were for sale.
“At the present time, we only have the Bell Lofts and the Lofts@315 listed and already have significant interest,” he wrote. “We’ve seen a lot of investment activity recently from local and out-of-state buyers. I think investors are seeing a lot of value downtown right now.”
Asked why the other two had been removed, he said 鈥渙ur marketing team may have released that prematurely.鈥
A post under Lafser鈥檚 name on LinkedIn earlier in the day had advertised the entire 200-unit portfolio.
Alston and Chakraverty did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Kyle Hennessey, a top Lux Living employee who sits on Ely Walker鈥檚 condo board, said in an email to 鈥渒eep up the good work over there pumping out hit pieces for that rag!鈥 Asked whether the downtown portfolio was still for sale, he said he wasn鈥檛 sure which buildings the newspaper was referring to.
An attorney for the companies, Ira Berkowitz, said in an email that it was his understanding that only Bell Lofts and the Lofts@315 were for sale.
A sale of Alston and Chakraverty鈥檚 downtown holdings would still leave them with hundreds of newly built apartments in Soulard and north of Forest Park, as well as older buildings in the Central West End and on South Grand Boulevard.
Though Alston and Chakraverty鈥檚 companies have faced criticism for their management of the downtown properties, their listing follows another high-profile downtown landlord exiting the market. Early pioneers in downtown鈥檚 loft redevelopment boom, the McGowan family has sold most of its Washington Avenue holdings over the last two years,
Downtown鈥檚 struggles may be part of the issue, said Madelyn Munsell, who used to live in Ely Walker. But the building was also deteriorating rapidly. She moved out at the end of March after repair needs that went ignored, including sewage dripping from ceiling pipes and a broken fire alarm. Shootings and security also remained a problem, she said.
鈥淭he building had declined so much and become very, very dangerous very quickly,鈥 she said.
After she tried to organize other tenants, Ely Walker management threatened to evict her and then sued her and her husband after they moved out and refused, due to the building鈥檚 conditions, to pay thousands of dollars for the remaining months left on their lease. Asprient dropped the case earlier this month after Munsell retained an attorney to fight it.
Munsell said Alston and Chakraverty鈥檚 decision to sell their downtown holdings could be reflective of downtown鈥檚 struggles, including empty storefronts, high-profile shootings and parties that make 鈥渄owntown so difficult to reside in right now.鈥
鈥淚 also think this is reflective of how they do business as well as how they take care of these buildings,鈥 she said of the owners.
Denbow, however, pointed to new apartments in the nearby Butler Brothers Building, new work on the Jefferson Arms and the 146-unit as evidence of downtown apartment demand.
鈥淭hat doesn鈥檛 make sense that they feel there鈥檚 not a rental market,鈥 she said.
Alston and Chakraverty have turned their attention further afield from downtown. They are pitching new apartment buildings in St. Charles and Kansas City and have another building nearing completion in University City.