ST. LOUIS 鈥 Terrion Smith was letting people into the Ely Walker Lofts for a party on the night of March 12 when the 16-year-old was shot dead in the lobby of the Washington Avenue building.
Police said the shooting appeared to be targeted. The apartment had been rented out via a short-term rental website for a birthday party.
On the Monday after the shooting, March 14, St. 亚洲无码 officials issued a public nuisance notice for unit 510 of the Ely Walker building, where the party had been held, citing 鈥渟hooting, disturbances and other unruly behavior.鈥 It scheduled a meeting March 31 with the owner: 鈥淎concagua One LLC, c/o Asprient Properties.鈥
Aconcagua One, which owns nearly half of the condos in the Ely Walker building, lists as manager Victor Alston, the developer behind Lux Living and a prominent real estate investor. His brother and business partner, Sid Chakraverty, sits on Ely Walker鈥檚 condominium association board, which manages the property. At least two other Lux employees are on the board, giving them a majority on the five-member condo association.
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Alston and Chakraverty have faced criticism for Lux Living鈥檚 business practices, including tactics to stymie a competing development and tenant complaints about poor management at their properties.
But now the brothers鈥 downtown holdings, particularly Ely Walker Lofts, are drawing new scrutiny from city officials and downtown residents. Tenants and other property owners downtown have complained about parties 鈥 some, they say, rented through websites such as Airbnb 鈥 getting out of control and damaging property in the 174-unit building at 1520 Washington Avenue. A party at the building last May spilled out into the street and led to an infamous incident when partiers danced on a police patrol car.
Last week, St. 亚洲无码 Public Safety Director Dan Isom said the city was investigating after a large rooftop party April 23 at Ely Walker lofts and planned to meet with the management team.
On Monday, Ben Breit, who heads 鈥渢rust communications鈥 for Airbnb, came to St. 亚洲无码 and appeared with city and business officials with a pledge to better identify problem rental units. He announced the platform would expand restrictions on rentals during Memorial Day weekend, a measure it is rolling out nationwide. A similar block on guests without good reviews during Independence Day weekend last year affected some 500 people in St. 亚洲无码, Breit said.
St. 亚洲无码 Assessor Michael Dauphin also appeared Monday to say his office is working with the mayor鈥檚 office and the city鈥檚 problem properties unit to identify properties used for short-term rentals and reclassify them as commercial real estate.
鈥淲e view them as running a commercial business and essentially, when you move them from residential to commercial classification, it doubles their tax bill,鈥 Dauphin said Monday.
The downtown parties and incidents have also gotten the attention of the St. 亚洲无码 Board of Aldermen, which is reviving ideas to regulate the industry or require licenses for Airbnb hosts.
鈥淚f they鈥檙e not licensed and given a permit to operate, there鈥檚 no hammer to take away their license or punish them when they鈥檙e bad actors or hosts,鈥 said Alderman Tom Oldenburg.
鈥業t ain鈥檛 ours鈥
Though there are short-term rentals through Airbnb throughout the city, the city鈥檚 focus on improving quality of life downtown has for the moment focused the spotlight on the Ely Walker building and Alston and Chakraverty.
Ira Berkowitz, a lawyer for many of the brothers鈥 companies, denied that his clients do any short-term rentals at Ely Walker.
鈥淭here鈥檚 absolutely no short-term leasing,鈥 Berkowitz said. 鈥淭here鈥檚 no short-term Airbnbs or anything else through my client at Ely Walker. Zero.鈥
鈥淲e will not tolerate short-term leasing at Ely Walker,鈥 he said.
But a company called 鈥淭heSTAY鈥 had a unit advertised this week on Airbnb at a location that appears to match the Ely Walker building鈥檚 address, according to the website鈥檚 map. Chakraverty is the registered agent for 鈥淭heStay LLC,鈥 Missouri business filings say.
Told about , Berkowitz replied that 鈥渁dvertising is one thing. Do you have any evidence of any actual short-term leasing?鈥
鈥淚f you find a posting on Airbnb it ain鈥檛 ours,鈥 he said.
The property listing does not specifically say it is an Ely Walker unit, but Airbnb鈥檚 map shows it is located where the Ely Walker building is. TheSTAY also lists Airbnb units in other buildings owned by companies affiliated with Alston and Chakraverty.
Shown screenshots of the listing, Berkowitz said, 鈥淭here is no indication on any of these attached listings that any of them are for Ely Walker.鈥
And Airbnb鈥檚 Breit, in an email Thursday afternoon, said the listing is for 鈥渁n entirely separate building 鈥 not 1520 Washington.鈥 Breit described Airbnb鈥檚 location map 鈥渁s approximate and could be anywhere within a 10-city block radius.鈥
Asked if TheSTAY had listed Ely Walker units via Airbnb in the past, Breit said he didn鈥檛 know.
Chakraverty, reached by phone Wednesday, declined to comment.
As for the March shooting, Berkowitz said he didn鈥檛 know if the nuisance summons was related. But he did say that it was a regular tenant who had listed the unit on Airbnb, not Alston鈥檚 Aconcagua One LLC.
鈥淭his was a tenant of theirs that did it behind our back,鈥 Berkowitz said. 鈥淲e had no idea that this guy was doing it.鈥
The bigger issue, he said, is the 鈥減roliferation of these guns. ... We should all be ashamed of ourselves for allowing this to happen.鈥
Singling out Ely Walker 鈥渋s not the answer鈥 to downtown鈥檚 problems, Berkowitz said.
鈥淟ook at Washington Avenue altogether,鈥 he said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not this building, it鈥檚 what鈥檚 happening in the city.鈥
鈥淵ou got kids running around shooting windows out.鈥
Tenants fight back
In 2015, Aconcagua purchased 87 of the condos in the Ely Walker building, giving it just under 50% of the building鈥檚 units, according to a September lawsuit filed by several other condo owners in the building.
The other owners allege that Chakraverty and Alston鈥檚 Aconcagua 鈥渆ngineered the installation鈥 of a majority of condo board members to control the building. Those board members, including the Lux employees, don鈥檛 directly own condos there but are 鈥渁ffiliated with, and are beholden鈥 to Aconcagua and 鈥渟erve its interests鈥 rather than those of the Ely Walker condo owners, the lawsuit alleges. They vote in a 鈥渂lock-like manner鈥 on all business before the association, the lawsuit alleges.
Aconcagua tries to maximize its rental cash flow by utilizing all of its units, 鈥渇requently on short-term bases,鈥 the lawsuit says, which 鈥渋s highly divergent from the interests of the independent鈥 condo owners and violates condo rules. The lawsuit claims that after owners called out the short-term leases, Aconcagua changed its leases to a year but added a provision allowing signers to terminate the leases in 60 days, effectively keeping them short-term.
Aconcagua has denied the allegations in responses.
But conditions have grown worse recently, said Allie Byrd, a three-year tenant of Ely Walker who rents one of the units owned by a company affiliated with Alston and Chakraverty. She says she has been complaining about a leak in her bedroom ceiling for months. Her car, along with several others, had its windows bashed in after people at one of the recent parties vandalized cars in the building鈥檚 garage. Byrd said actual owners who live in the building need representation on the condo association in order to make changes.
鈥淧er the bylaws, that鈥檚 not allowed in that building,鈥 she said of the short-term rentals. 鈥淏ut they don鈥檛 control it very well.鈥
It鈥檚 not just Ely Walker. Kevin Liese, owner of downtown bar Jack Patrick鈥檚, said things have gotten worse at the next-door Bell Lofts building, at 918 Olive Street, since Alston鈥檚 company took over. Short-term rentals are frequent, judging by the people arriving and departing with luggage, he said. The Bell Lofts are advertised by TheSTAY on the Airbnb site.
On New Year鈥檚 Eve, partygoers crammed onto a balcony, one of them firing a gun in the air, toward the empty AT&T skyscraper. Several windows on the north side of the building are boarded up, visible from the street downtown. Liese doesn鈥檛 remember the boards before that New Year鈥檚 Eve.
鈥淚 saw the gunfire first hand,鈥 he said. 鈥淚t was not straight up in the air. There was no way it was clearing the tower.鈥
Told of the incident, Berkowitz said the city has 鈥渁 crime problem.鈥
But he said 鈥淚 do not see any direct connection between short-term leasing and crime.鈥
鈥淭enants on one-year or five-year leases,鈥 Berkowitz said, 鈥渃an be just as destructive.鈥
Dana Rieck and Mark Schlinkmann of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.