A Shaker Boulevard landlord has found a buyer for the trio of apartment buildings that became emblematic of Cleveland City Hall’s battle with out-of-town landlords.
The buildings have vexed tenants and city officials over the years. They’ve complained of broken elevators, faulty heat and poor security at the properties. The city sued the landlord, which has a New York mailing address, in 2023 and has cited the properties for multiple code violations.
The proposed buyer, The Lenox at Shaker Square LLC, signaled that it would turn things around. The company, led by Martin N. Shkreli, has proposed $5.1 million in repairs and renovations as part of an investment of more than $20 million, according to a filing in Cleveland Housing Court.
Shkreli is the founder of New York-based Alba Construction. He is not the pharmaceutical investor of the same name.
Housing Court Judge W. Moná Scott approved the sale deal at a hearing Tuesday. She had previously prevented landlord Shaker Heights Apartments Owner LLC from selling the properties without the court’s approval because of the buildings’ code violations.
Attorneys for the city and the landlord jointly asked Scott to sign off on the sale, writing that the deal would settle City Hall’s lawsuit. They described the deal as the fruit of seven months of “complex multi-party negotiations.”
The sale would correct code violations, take care of unpaid taxes and “serve as a landmark investment capable of generating positive secondary benefits to the city and its residents,” the lawyers for both parties wrote.
Scott urged the city to stay on top of the new owner to resolve more than 40 outstanding code violations.
“These three apartments have been a huge problem with the tenants that reside in them,” Scott said at the hearing.
A spokesperson for Mayor Justin Bibb’s office, Sarah Johnson, framed the deal as setting a “a powerful precedent” for the city.
“This agreement ensures that the historic properties at the vital gateway to Shaker Square will finally receive the investment and care they have long deserved,” she wrote in an email.
Seeking ‘a safe and healthy place to live’ near Shaker Square
A tenant who spoke at the hearing, Anderson Waldon, said that his building needed better security. For instance, there wasn’t security footage to help police find the culprit of a recent car break-in, he said.
“I just want to feel secure, that’s all,” Waldon said. “And it doesn’t take much.”
Shkreli told the court that he planned to replace the buildings’ doors and add more security cameras as part of his renovation plans.
The buildings’ 249 units are only around 40% occupied, attorneys at the hearing said. For now, a one-bedroom apartment rents for $850 to $950 per month, and a three-bedroom goes for $1,400, according to Yaacov Amar, a representative for the current owner. Scott said she was concerned about the possibility that the new owner would hike rents.
Shkreli has backing for the project from Metropolitan Commercial Bank, a New York lender. Shaker Heights Apartments Owner LLC also took out a mortgage from that bank when it bought the buildings in 2022. The deal will resolve loan default issues between the current landlord and the bank, the joint court filing said.
Cleveland-based Progressive Urban Property Management will manage the apartments for the new owner, an attorney for Shkreli said at the hearing.
A neighborhood advocacy organization called the Morelands Group has spent years lobbying city officials to attend to tenants’ complaints at the buildings. The group is part of a city-funded effort to assist renters.
Meg Weingart, a member of the group, said in an interview that she hoped the sale would be a “huge win for the community.”
“For the tenants to have a safe and healthy place to live, that’s what we’re after,” she said.
This story has been updated with comment from the mayor’s office.
