Guest post and photos by the Hawthorne Hawkman. Image from www.starofthenorthbloodstock.com.
Inspired by this weekend's release of "Avatar," easily the most in-depth 3-D movie ever made, I wanted to give JNS readers a similar visual experience. However, writing the links to each individual property is incredibly time-intensive. So for the fullest interactive version of the Pamiko photo tour, I recommend opening the unabridged list in a different window and viewing the two posts side-by-side. I will keep the photos in the exact order of that list.
Oh, I almost forgot. The Koenigs own a racehorse. I just thought you should know that little factoid.
ADDENDUM: An alert JNS Reader has sent in a photo of what one property in particular, 3025 Clinton Ave S USED to look like. Not that all or necessarily any of the "damage" was done while Pamiko owned the house, but it gives a visual example of how these homes get remodeled into something that only appeals to slumlords or those few with the inclination and ability towards restoration.
There are 58 properties in all, so let's get started. Please keep your hands inside the cart at all times, and make sure to have your protective eye gear on the "Slum-o-vision" setting...
First up is 3053 15th Ave S
Next is 1414 16th Ave N. This is the first property on our list where we note an architectural feature unique to Pamiko Properties: The Pamiko Rail. This was pointed out by "Hillside Chronicle." The Pamiko Rail typically consists of two plastic posts with an unpainted block of wood connecting the two. There are minor variations, but if you see a handrail like this, you can be sure you're looking at a Pamiko house.
Here is 1812 16th Ave S. Is that a bathtub in the backyard?
2736 16th Ave S has a whole host of problems. On top of the Pamiko Rail, we also have plenty of unfinished construction, loads of chipping paint, and windows that are just visually insulting.
Here's 1318 18th Ave N
1017 22nd Ave N gives us a variation on the railings, where they're made entirely out of wood.
1100 24th Ave N has some actual interesting architectural features that Pamiko hasn't managed to destroy (yet). The garage is boarded, and there are shoes on the power lines RIGHT IN FRONT OF THE HOUSE.
2402 4th Ave S is next.
2119 4th St N has a for-rent sign out front. Take a look at those railings. Notice that they didn't even bother to take off the stickers. What's the point? If you lose the house to foreclosure before 90 days, you can probably just take those posts and return them to Home Depot for a refund.
3242 6th St N is apparently going for the "shiniest door of the year" award.
2701 Aldrich Ave N has another part of the structure that still has the price tags on: the block windows. We also see the Pamiko rail put to multiple uses.
How sad is it when 3238 Aldrich Ave N would actually be IMPROVED by a Pamiko Rail? There is actually a wheelchair-accessible ramp in the back, which is just ironic given the front. And does this qualify as another "Neapolitan house"?
4652 Aldrich Ave N is the site of one of Pamiko's three known multimillion-dollar foreclosures. What's going on with the siding/window?
2420 Bryant Ave N has already been profiled on this blog as the property that kicked off this whole issue.
2708 Bryant Ave N is registered as a duplex, but I'm looking at this house and thinking there are four units here.
2931 Bryant Ave N has plenty of peeling/chipping paint as well, and here you can see the evolution of windows from historic to slummy.
2616 Cedar Ave S has some graffiti on the south side of the property. This is one thing I noticed in south Minneapolis; that the graffiti seems to be MUCH WORSE than over north, yet we're the neighborhood with a bad rap.
2905 Colfax Ave N is fairly nondescript.
At 2918 Colfax Ave N, we learn that you can put tinsel on a Pamiko Rail, but it's still a Pamiko Rail. Also, we've got mismatched STUCCO, with siding that converted a porch to probably another bedroom.
3101 Dupont Ave N has Pamiko Rails and it's hard to tell if those doors are supposed to be replaced or taken away.
4100 Dupont Ave N is boarded and the front door is profiled as the lead image of this post.
1317 Emerson Ave N almost has it all: Pamiko Rails, multiple price tags and stickers left on the construction material, bad window jobs. The only thing it's missing is mismatched siding.
2827 Emerson Ave N has a railing made entirely out of wood, but still looks terrible.
3531 Emerson Ave N has a "for rent" sign out front covered in snow. I didn't bother fixing that little problem.
2316 Fremont Ave N really gets my gander up. Look at what he did to those windows on the second floor! Oh, and there's a weird opening on the garage that's open to trespass.
2719 Fremont Ave N has window issues as well.
3223 Fremont has yet another Pamiko Rail.
1605-7 Girard Ave N has a half-Pamiko Rail.
1622 Girard Ave N looks rather nice comparatively. Until you see the RAILINGS!!!
2706 Girard Ave N has the most, um, creative railing so far.
And here's 2710 Girard Ave N.
I'm not sure what's being used to plug a hole in the window at 2727 Girard Ave N. There's also a "for rent" sign out front that directs people to call Pamiko.
1547 Hillside Ave N has the shortest Pamiko Rail to date. Look at that! It's like they're just TAUNTING us!
1608 Hillside Ave N is DEFINITELY another "Neapolitan house." It also has Pamiko rails, and is that a STROLLER on the ROOF?
1611 Hillside Ave N looks pretty nice, actually. But take a closer view of the railing on the front stairs. It's perfectly fine, so does Pamiko just have a COMPULSION to make the railing that ugly?
And here's 2013 Hillside Ave N.
2420 James looks like it's already gone through foreclosure if an REO Realtor is selling it. And a notice torn off of the door indicates that the owner in 2007 had illegal occupants.
Here's 1211 Knox Ave N.
I thought I had pictures of 1417 Logan already, but perhaps not. I'll have to remedy that shortly.
And 2400 Lyndale Ave N.
726 Morgan Ave N is next.
2943 Morgan Ave N marks the return of the Pamiko Rails.
1016 Newton Ave N is next.
1507 Newton Ave N has something ugly happening to the windows.
1229 Oliver Ave N has Pamiko Rails, and can someone tell me why the balconies have those wooden things built in? Is it an attempt to meet some city code?
3015 Oliver Ave N has more Pamiko Rails.
817 Penn Ave N is above-average, but for Pamiko, that's not saying a whole lot.
907 Penn Ave N starts to get us back into familiar territory.
2435 Portland Ave S is up next.
Here's 3119 Queen Ave N.
1340 Sheridan Ave N just might be the nicest house out of the whole lot.
2314 Sheridan Ave N, on the other hand...not so much.
621 26th Ave N just makes me depressed. That balcony and porch weren't originally closed in like that. Somebody decided to convert this into more rentable rooms for a duplex. And look at the crummy window repair!
818 19th Ave NE is the only Pamiko property in Northeast. One look, and you'll understand why it's a Pamiko.
2321 Lyndale Ave N looks much the same.
Here's 1403 21st Ave N.
This concludes photos from the original list. But there's still a few loose ends to tie up.
3025 Clinton Ave S does not show up under a search on the city records, although it was an address given to me by JNS readers. It's got a lot going on though. And it does show up as owned by Minnwest Bank on the tax rolls.
Here's a shot of 3025 Clinton Ave S in its former glory.
2119 4th St N was another new property that wasn't on any previous list. This is a duplex owned by Pamiko and more than one year behind on taxes. For some reason, I forgot to get a shot of the front. But look at the rear of this property:
3213 4th St N is also a new property. While neither of these two properties show up on foreclosure searches, they were both listed under the multimillion-dollar foreclosures and can be expected to be owned by Minnwest Bank in the near future.
Finally, this blog listed several properties that did not show up anywhere: 828 19th Ave N and 1318 Queen Ave N. Since I didn't get hard copies, I can't be sure if my notes are correct. However, neither of these properties exist, and both are on the mortgage documents. If my notes are indeed accurate then this is certainly fraud.
Oh, and lest we forget, the Koenigs have a racehorse. We just get stuck with their horseshit.
17 comments:
Great work! Seeing all of these properties side-by-side really highlights how a single owner can affect a neighborhood.
I drive by 1100 24th Ave. N. on a regular basis, and for the better part of a year, perhaps more, the little awning over the doorways was held up by temporary 2X4 supports. Until they failed and the awning was just hanging there all kitty-wampus. Believe it or not, the current repair is a massive improvement.
AKL
What the hell. How or wht does ona apear to have bought a bunch of old houses and tear them up all at the same time and leave them. It makes no sense. Unles you are just stripping to equity and faking it like you are a LAND LORD.
T Jaramillo
You missed the worst about their ownership of 2013 Hillside.
Before Pamiko bought it, the front entrance was an ornate, wood and glass door with glass side panels... and now it's all been bricked over with a crummy fire door not even centered within the entrance.
Just reprehensible, awful people.
You also missed the wondrous improvements they made to 1547 Hillside.
Sure, you go the "Pamiko Rail" out front, and it's understandable how you missed the sided over windows on the front porch, but how did you miss the fact they'd ripped out the concrete retaining walls and replaced them with freaking RAIL ROAD TIES?
And you really need to see the "landscaping" out back, where they poured asphalt to create a makeshift parking deck and then sunk a row of thick, green METAL POLES, (like the kind you'd see directing traffic at a McDonald's drive thru or a Flying J protecting the gas pumps), to prevent cars from driving off their property and into the alley below.
I didn't mention the backyard fencing held up on the roof by a 2x4, since that was the genius improvement from the previous owner... but it's not like Pamiko did anything about that one either, so maybe I don't owe them the slack.
It pains me to see these homes - several of which I tried to either sell to responsible buyers or even purchase myself over the years... always lost to higher bidders.
And I always kind of wondered who was over-paying for these places.
So sad to see all the architectural detail stripped in favor of a quick fix patch job.
So...Who is renting these disgusting looking homes? Are you and me paying for people to live there?
I reiterate my plea to police investigators, public officials, prosecutors...
In the words of the final broadcast of Radio Free Hungary:
To anybody who is listening. Help. Help. Help.
Now, for no reason, I'm caught up in researching the precise quote. Here is one link.
http://www.johndclare.net/cold_war14.htm
And here is another.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/1956/nov/05/fromthearchive
We need public officials digging into this matter immediately. I don't want to hear unpublishable back channel rumors. I want word--openly and publishable--that public officials are getting to the bottom of something that appears very rotten with Pamiko.
@JNS - they are. they are starting to take note and take action. The story is being busted open right before us and the truth will come out. Like it always does.
I want "truth being busted wide open" that I can actually write about on this blog. Hearing about it and not being able to write about it makes me crazy.
While I appreciate that public officials are working on the issue, it appears to me after almost 10 years in NoMi that the city is never procative, always reactive. The damage has already been done. The properties have been used and abused, the banks, and their depositers, have been bilked, and so far, it appears Koenig still owns his racehorse.
In addition to getting to the bottom of the current problem, I want proactive policy that will stop this from happening in the future.
I recently bumped into a fellow from one of the neighborhood association boards (a real estate agent) who said that housing prices remain a deal in NoMi, but that the rental market has remained stable, and so people are still collecting much the same rent as they did 5 years ago. If true, this makes NoMi even more attractive to investors than ever. So, it would seem the only thing slowing investors down is the credit market. That will eventually loosen up again, and then we'll just lather, rinse and repeat.
AKL
This is another instance of why citizens need to be able to search for properties BY NAME OF OWNER on the city website. Other cities have this. How many times have I mentioned this to Diane Hofstede? Yes, this blog endorsed her...reluctantly. We need progress on this issue of improving the city's property website so citizens have this ability to search properties BY NAME OF OWNER and turn up a whole freaking list of CRAP.
If citizens had this ability, we would have caught on to Paul K. the minute there was a problem at ONE of his properties. By my reckoning, we would have caught on approximately 6 months ago, when there was so much CRAP on the lawn of his "slumdog millionaire" mansion on Bryant Ave. N. that I had to call 311 for EXCESSIVE LAWN LITTER. And I don't bother with that kind of 311 call very often.
If I'd had this ability to conveniently research properties by name of owner, damn right I would have dug deeper approximately six months ago and caught on to the fact this owned A LOT of properties and many are in CRAPPY SHAPE. Oh, and then it turns out this guy was involved in the DREAM HOUSE FIASCO?
Blog candy, baby. We should have had this SON OF A BITCH in our sights six months ago. Are you hearing me, Paul K? Pack your bags for Belize, if I have my way you're going to jail, scum bag.
The city is reactive, not proactive? Damn right. But thank god that, at least, they ARE reactive. (Johnny Northside Pollyanna positivity font)
But if "proactive" is ever going to happen, then give citizens the tools they need to make their neighborhoods better, not just the ability to search by name of property owner but delegate authority to the neighborhood associations to do emergency board ups if the city can't get there fast enough.
@AKL - about the rental market staying stable/the same - I attribute that to being because most of the northside's rental market is the subsidized rental market. Mostly section 8 vouchers that are assigned to the renter to pick and choose where to rent, and MPHA (public housing) administers the HUD funds that help pay the rent to the owner. HUD, or MPHA doesn't adjust their voucher rent standards DOWN in a down market. Therefore, property owners get to continue to collect the same rent, in fact, they get to buy houses on the cheap, and collect the same rent. Especially if they can maximize bedroom size. That is why we see so many basements getting egressed windows, or large homes converted to multiunits. HUD standards don't require a certain amount of sq footage, just doors that close properly and a window, not even sure HUD requires a closet.
Like for example, a conversation I was having today about some of the 'improvements' or 'repairs' that show up in some of these Pamiko property pictures - to me it looks like they were simple trying to get the houses to pass a HUD section 8 inspection. Railings, windows, etc. All be damned with cosmetics and asthetics. Just meet the safety standards spelled out in the section 8 inspection guidelines.
Matter of fact, another part of the conversation had to do with this person noticing that it looked like Pamiko had done some work moving walls around inside. This speaks to the maximizing bedroom units again.
So, like 1915Bungalow said, yes, not only is Pamiko pillaging our neighborhood, but they are using OUR tax dollars to pillage our neighborhood, in several ways - through the collection of section 8 money, and probably through bailout money that the Fed has to use to save or stabilize the banks that have been involved.
These Pamiko property people need to be in jail. For a long time.
you are writing about it aren't you?
Did you notice how many of the houses in the photos had the same bland beige vinyl siding? I just found this interesting. It's as if they got a deal, bought it all in bulk, and applied it to nearly every property. UGH
Help.... we live in a pamiko property, what a mess... nothing fixed, plus our neighbors have to leave due to forclosure by march 1.we live in a twin home,How can you forclosure on one side and not the other? Paul is nothing but a scam artist and his follwers as well.Anyone out there that knows enough or can help my sister and i find more info on him and to stop this ring? We have so many repairs that has to be done in our place and many broken promises.There are so many usanswered guestions any help from anyone?
Post a Comment