Apartment City

Last Updated Aug 19, 2017 4:54 PM EDT Maryland Democrats are demanding a slew of records from Kushner Companies LLC after reports that its subsidiaries' apartment complexes receiving public housing payments are getting judges to order the arrest of delinquent renters and making rent payments unnecessarily difficult for tenants.  President Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner stepped down as CEO of Kushner Companies when he joined the White House, but retains a significant financial stake in the business. The firm has received $6.1 million in federal rental subsidies through the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for three apartment complexes in Maryland since January 2015, according to a recent Baltimore Sun report .  Those subsidies help tenants pay their rent. But the Sun reported Kushner Companies is "the most aggressive [firm] in Maryland" in using a debt collection tactic that urges judges to arrest people who fail to appe...

Darrow Montgomery When  Matthew Pfaff was looking for a rent- controlled apartment in D.C. last year, he thought he could find one within his budget and in a convenient location—without much ado. But more than a year and a half later, Pfaff is reflecting on how much of a headache that process became. After applying for a one-bedroom unit at the historic South Cathedral Mansions apartment building in Woodley Park, property management staff repeatedly delayed his move-in date and made conflicting statements about what his rent would be, according to a lawsuit Pfaff ’s attorney Aaron Arce Stark filed in D.C. Superior Court this summer. The Silver Spring resident is suing for damages he allegedly suffered because he had to go month-to-month on his existing lease at a higher rate, hired movers, and sold some furniture. “I didn’t want to move every year to stay in an affordable unit,” says Pfaff, who remains in the same apartment he was living in when he applied. “I’m not entirely sure...

August 17, 2017 https://www.masshousing.com MassHousing has provided $17.6 million in affordable housing financing to the Claremont Companies for the refinancing of the 200-unit Solemar at South Dartmouth. The refinancing of the mixed- income senior citizen community preserves the affordability of the property’s 100 affordable units through 2034. Affordability of 100 units will be extended to 2034 “This transaction provides a great outcome for the residents of Solemar at South Dartmouth and for the Claremont Companies,” said MassHousing Executive Director Tim Sullivan . “This refinancing extends housing affordability protections for lower- income senior citizens , and improves the property’s long- term financial health , all without using scarce state resources . And it demonstrates MassHousing’s commitment to working creatively with the owners and developers of affordable housing , to offer competitive financial products suited to their unique needs, while meeting the Commonwealth...

We all make choices — building companies or products or communities — around how much control and authority each of the participants has. Do we tightly control our users in order to streamline our product, or do we open up multiple interfaces and allow our users to drive? Do we share our data with others in the belief that a rising tide lifts all boats, or do we hide it to improve our competitive advantage? Do we allow users to deconstruct and reassemble our products, or does that void their warranty? Do we respect current norms of our industry, or do we see the need for disruption? In many instances, these are questions of centralized versus decentralized authority  — who has the right and ability to make choices. Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world. —  William Butler Yeats   In this post, we argue that we now have the ability to build more decentralized systems , and that these can often create a competitive advantage over existing solut...

By Ernie Smith / Aug 23, 2017 (ivanastar/iStock/Getty Images Plus) The trade group INCOMPAS says its members are getting locked out of apartment complexes due to incentive programs and exclusivity deals with management companies—and has asked the FCC to step in with changes to the rules. Apartment industry groups, however, argue that their members have worked to ensure a competitive broadband landscape. When it comes to internet access, are apartment dwellers getting a raw deal? This trade group says yes. INCOMPAS, which represents competitive telecom providers , particularly internet providers , recently made the case to the Federal Communications Commission that exclusivity agreements set up with apartment buildings are unfair to a large portion of the population. The FCC opened up a Notice of Inquiry [PDF] on the topic earlier this summer, in response to a request by the Multifamily Broadband Council  , who spoke up in opposition to local rules in the San F...

CHAMPAIGN - When brothers Jeff, Steve and Mike Hartman went into the real estate development and management business together, they combined more than the initials of their first names. They also merged everything their father taught them about the construction business and all their mother taught them about family loyalty in their three enterprises, JSM Apartments, JSM Development and JSM Management. Under the JSM umbrella, the Hartmans now own and manage 700 apartments and 114,000 square feet of commercial space in Champaign-Urbana, including the new Technology Plaza apartment/retail/office complex in Campustown. And they have more developments on the way. Already started are a new apartment/retail complex on Gregory Street in Urbana, near the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, and a new retail center on South Neil Street in Champaign, where Hillcrest Lumber used to be. The Hartmans say they work well together in business, running things jointly and never undertakin...

1000 South Broadway Apartments . (Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite) apartment building; residential; real estate; denver; colorado; denverite; kevinjbeaty" width="1000" height="667" />The 1000 South Broadway Apartments . (Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite) When it was announced last week that Chipotle would be the first company to publicly partner with the city to subsidize housing for low- and moderate-income Denverites, a lot of people had the same question: Why doesn’t Chipotle just pay its employees enough money to afford Denver housing ? The answer, as you can probably guess, is in economics. “The balance between costs of housing in the city and wages… those two are grossly out of line,” said Erik Soliván, executive director of the Denver Office of Housing and Opportunities for People Everywhere (HOPE). “ We have a lot of people with jobs, the lowest — probably — unemployment rate in the country, but the wages are not keeping pace and are being far out-paced by the cost...