Shaker Square residents protest lack of heat and water leaks at apartments owned by New York LLC

UPDATE: At a press conference outside The Residences at Shaker Square on Wednesday, Feb. 1, Cleveland City Council president Blaine Griffin and Ward 4 council member Deborah Gray vowed that they would work with residents to make The Chetrit Group fix up their properties. Griffin said nuisance landlords are a problem throughout the city. He also said he is working with the city’s Department of Building and Housing and Cleveland Housing Court on a nuisance abatement process “in order to hold these landlords accountable.”

A group of residents in Cleveland’s Shaker Square neighborhood say they’re tired of having no heat, water leaks, and dangerous mold in their apartments. They’re holding a press conference with Cleveland City Council members Blaine Griffin and Deborah Gray on Wednesday, Feb. 1 at 3 p.m. at The Residences at Shaker Square at 12701 Shaker Blvd. to draw attention to what they say are deplorable conditions at their buildings. They’re asking for immediate action from the property owner, Shaker Heights Apartment Owner LLC, which owns the multi-family properties at 12500, 12600, and 12701 Shaker Blvd. 

The LLC, which according to news reports is majority owned by the Chetrit family in New York City, purchased the buildings for $12.4 million in January 2022. Since then, the tenants say, the owners have done little to fix up or maintain the buildings, with some residents going without heat in their apartments all winter and water leaks causing ceilings to fall down. 

“They haven’t done hardly anything to fix up the building,” said Ronald James, who has lived at The Residences at Shaker Square for the past year, in an interview and tour of the building with The Land. James said he had to move out of his apartment into a motel room temporarily when he found his closet filled with mold after a water leak. Until last week, James and many other residents had no heat, but recently it was turned back on. “They’ve done a few repairs lately just because they’ve had to,” he said. 

James and other tenants are now withholding their rent and placing it into escrow with the housing court. Ohio law allows a tenant to pay rent to the court to force the landlord to make repairs, the city stated in a press release. The city of Cleveland has charged the owners with building code violations and the owners are currently being held in contempt of housing court for not appearing in court. 

According to news reports, the Chetrit Group is facing a $481 million loan default and is looking to sell more than 8,000 units across multiple states.

Jay Westbrook, a former Cleveland City Council member who helps lead the Morelands Group, a grassroots organization that is an offshoot of Shaker Square Alliance and seeks to improve housing conditions in and around the square, told The Land that out-of-town LLCs and “remote investors” (LLC investors who are disengaged with the property and its management) are a problem in Cleveland. He estimates that about half of the properties in the Moreland corridor are what he calls “high risk,” meaning that they have delinquent taxes, remote ownership, and are in poor condition. 

James said it took some time before he and other tenants could even find out who the real owner of the building is (the tax mailing address lists the property address), and even then, they found the LLC registered in multiple states. Even after they found out the name of the out-of-state owners, “Chetrit” meant nothing to the tenants, said Westbrook. “We never heard the name.”

Morelands Group activist and E. 128th St. resident Bob Render agreed that chasing down LLCs that buy real estate in Cleveland is challenging. “Out-of-town LLCs have certainly exacerbated Cleveland’s housing problems,” he said. “It’s like a shell game. How many LLCs can one company have? They can be prosecuted under one LLC, and create another one the next day.”

The Morelands Group has researched properties using tools like the county website and has also created a database showing the number of out-of-town LLCs as well as properties in poor condition or with back taxes owed.

Meg Weingart with the Morelands Group said that the group’s ultimate goal is to ensure safe, stable living conditions, not to see historic buildings knocked down. The buildings themselves are well worth preserving, she said, but the current owners are not taking care of them. 

James said many of the residents at 12701 Shaker Boulevard are senior citizens on fixed incomes. “Most people who live in these buildings are not rich,” he said. “They live here because it’s convenient, because the Rapid and the stores are nearby. If these people keep not making improvements, they’ll have to leave.”

The problem is, for many people, there’s nowhere to go. James said he is currently paying $905 for a two-bedroom apartment, which is up from $820 a year ago. Meanwhile, he’s seen few repairs. Many of the nicer, renovated apartment buildings in the area are $1,200-1,400 per month for a unit. James said he has no problem paying a little bit more than he paid in the past, but he wants a building that’s in serviceable condition with heat, running water, and no mold or leaks. 

Ward 6 council member and council president Blaine Griffin along with Ward 4 council member Deborah Gray plan to attend the press conference tomorrow to support the residents.