Dressed in a reflective work vest and gloves, St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter joined city workers for several hours Wednesday in clearing torn and soiled sofas, couches and other large, bulky, cast-away items from the basement of the troubled Lowry Apartments across from downtown City Hall.
The mayor helped fill four truckloads with trash by early afternoon, by which time at least half a dozen broken coin-operated washing machines — their coin compartments pried open — lined the Fourth Street sidewalk, waiting to be hauled away.
“Our team has been here since 8 in the morning,” said Carter, around 1 p.m. “This isn’t people’s stuff who live here right now. This is stuff that’s been piled up in the basement. Nobody’s been managing the building. The goal today is just the obvious fire hazard stuff … trying to get this stuff out of here. The guys who do this for a living, all day everyday, say they’re throwing away their clothes. This is disgusting.”
Court-appointed receiver
While the mayor helped clear debris, an assistant city attorney appeared in a courtroom across the street Wednesday morning, asking a Ramsey County District Court judge to fast-track a request for a court-appointed receiver to collect rents and better manage the 11-story building, which is in foreclosure.
Judge Sara Grewing agreed, assigning receivership to Frauenshuh, Inc., a commercial real estate company, and setting in motion what some hope will be better days ahead for what had once been one of downtown St. Paul’s most sought-after destination hotels.
Among Grewing’s seven findings: there is currently no contact on site for building management, city photos showed evidence of dog feces and drug paraphernalia strewn about hallways, elevators are often inoperable, the roof is not secured, broken doors and blocked off stairwells are a fire hazard, abandoned couches and other furniture is haphazardly strewn throughout the basement, and trash accumulating throughout the Lowry “is so significant that it could impede or prevent fire rescue.”
An attorney for Madison Equities — which had attempted to sell the Lowry on the traditional market — could not immediately be reached for comment on Wednesday.
“This receivership step is critical,” said City Council President Mitra Jalali, on the social media platform X on Wednesday. “It allows a more responsible party to work (with the) city on immediate health, cleaning, safety efforts underway at Lowry.”
As a precautionary measure on Wednesday afternoon, the St. Paul Fire Department sent a large crew of firefighters to 345 Wabasha St. for “building familiarization walk-throughs,” according to the department’s social media. “This is to note any hazards in the event of an emergency.”
Too little, too late?
Carter this week sent a strongly-worded letter to property owner Madison Equities, which the city has accused of effectively abandoning management of the building. The mayor on Monday made a personal call to a repair company and found $2,000 to get the elevators, which had been offline since Saturday, back in working order so residents could begin moving out, if need be.
On social media, some observers praised the mayor’s hands-on approach, while others derided it as a “photo op” and questioned why the city and county hadn’t coordinated efforts earlier to keep the property from becoming derelict. Following a building tour on Monday, Carter and City Attorney Lyndsey Olson said living conditions were among the worst they’d seen in the city. An entire floor and seven additional units have been condemned.
“Where were they two years ago when the fire escapes were dead-bolted closed and my sister, who is disabled, was stuck on the 11th floor?” said Anthony Kearns, a two-year lease holder, while riding the dingy elevator to the lobby. He said the city would be best served by emptying the building entirely.
“It’s been a nightmare,” Kearns added.
Carter noted that a recently-delayed foreclosure auction is now scheduled for early September, but the mayor said that’s too long to wait for responsible stewardship of a building home to more than 100 tenants, some of whom have children there. Dozens of those families receive rental assistance, such as federal Section 8 housing vouchers, meaning Madison Equities continues to receive at least partial rent payments, the mayor said.
New challenges: trash service canceled
FirstService Residential — the property management company that oversees the nearby Lowry Medical Arts building, which houses residential condominiums and the St. Paul Conservatory — informed property managers for the Lowry last Friday that they would no longer allow shared use of their basement trash room and trash compactor. After Saturday, the Lowry Apartments will now have to find a new trash service.
“If any staff, resident or personnel are found dumping garbage in the trash compactor or trespassing on Lowry Commercial property, law enforcement will be notified, and they will be issued citation for illegal dumping and for trespassing,” reads the Aug. 23 letter from FirstService Residential to the Lowry Apartments.
The city of St. Paul’s Department of Safety and Inspections recently informed Madison Equities that they would be cancelling the building’s Fire Certificate of Occupancy, meaning that if conditions don’t improve, the building would have to be cleared of tenants by April. Some county officials have quietly opined that the city — which has already condemned multiple insect-infested units — could condemn the entire property, giving tenants 60 days to relocate before winter.
Carter said the the city is taking pains to balance fire safety priorities against the possibility of leaving dozens of tenants homeless. Safely removing so many tenants would require careful coordination between the city, county and nonprofit providers of emergency housing. Many, but not all of the families already have caseworkers assigned.
Rose Lindsay, a spokesperson for Ramsey County, said the county just learned of the issues facing the Lowry residents on Aug. 15 and is coordinating with the city’s Office of Neighborhood Safety. The city and county hosted an informational meeting on Aug. 21 to inform tenants of their rights and responsibilities as ownership changes hands.
“Since we received notification, we have been working closely with the city of St. Paul on a response plan to provide resources,” Lindsay said.
Madison Equities’ principal, Jim Crockarell, died in January. In addition to the Lowry Apartments, his widow, Rosemary Kortgard, has put nine downtown office buildings and parking ramps spanning more than 1.6 million square feet of commercial real estate on the market en masse, as well as the Handsome Hog restaurant on Selby Avenue.
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