Photo by John Hoff
I was sitting at Hoa Bien Vietnamese Restaurant in St. Paul, eating the authentic and hard-to-locate locally hot-n-sour catfish soup, when HACC Chairman Peter Teachout called me with some possibly bad news: construction had started on 3001 6th St. N.
"Yeah," I said. "Like I told everybody in that one email, I saw workmen there a few days ago writing up some kind of estimate."
The building used to be a tri-plex, apparently, but word on the street is the building is now divided into five--count them on one hand, FIVE--living units. Sitting right at one of the most troubled intersections on the North Side--it has been a constant struggle to clean up that intersection--one can't help but think nothing good will come of this construction.
So Peter thought it would be good to go over to 3001 and inquire about their tenant-screening procedures. I thought it was a good idea, too.
"Put 'em on notice," I suggested. "We're watching. They can't get away with a lot of (expletive) before we start calling authorities."
We don't even know the landlord will be bad. I'm worried, though. The progress we have fought so hard to gain could be gone in an instant once this anonymous landlord brings in their "people need a place to live" tenants. And since city and county records take months to update, it's hard to even discover who owns the building to look into their reputation.
Whoever it is, they better have a (expletive) building permit, that's all I'll say, or it's going into the 311 system first thing tomorrow.
(Do not click "Read More")
5 comments:
A previous owner had already divided the place into five (presumably illegal) units. I saw it when I showed the place.
That is another one of the reasons why I tried to promote that house to you and your friends... places like that are just ripe for the [slumlord] picking, all across the city.
Check the zoning (I'm guessing it's R2) and get in touch with the housing inspector to make sure they are aware of the fact that the place has illegal units. You might be able to convince them to inspect the place BEFORE issuing a rental license.
I don't know about this property but a property next to mine in Frogtown with the same "Kyle White" realtor sign was completely remodeled with no permits. They appear to be trying to flip the house - which is single family. My complaint with the city about the lack of permits is still pending
Johnny,
The other thing to do, is check with inspections. Do they have a rental license. If they do have a legal license, how many units it for. They need to have one for each unit. If not, it is not a legal rental. Try and get to know someone at inspections, and convince them to not allow more than three (3) units for that structure.
Hey, everybody. Take a look at the next blog entry for an update on this situation. Thanks for all the advice. City inspections is ALL OVER THIS.
Ranty: we were all aware of that house, but it wasn't something any of us could tackle. For me, it was tempting but, ultimately, too much house with too many fixes and I never could have come up with the price.
PPL was interested in it, but the problem is they do single-family homes and it was, once again, TOO MUCH HOUSE.
It was always a slumlord plum waiting to be picked, and now one of them picked it but guess what? THE BATTLE IS ON. Watch for the next entry.
http://i36.tinypic.com/2ezmypj.jpg
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