Latitude Five25 apartment complex for sale

For sale: Columbus apartment complex, 392 apartments, 15 stories high, great views, in need of maintenance. Vacant. Sold as is.

The Columbus real-estate firm The Robert Weiler Co. is soliciting proposals from investors to buy and renovate Latitude Five25, the troubled Near East Side housing towers that were evacuated after being deemed uninhabitable.

“It’s a signature, high-profile property,” said Skip Weiler, whose firm was hired by New Perspective Asset Management, the Dublin company appointed receiver for the property.

The Robert Weiler Co. has listed the property and is sending requests for proposals to prospective buyers, who have until May 31st to respond.

“I think it will be a pretty big pool,” Weiler said. “We’re getting the word out. We know all the players in central Ohio and we’re getting the word out nationally.”

Dana Milligan, one of the founders of New Perspective Asset Management, said she expects a lot of interest in the property.

“We had 13 calls within the first few hours of it being posted,” she said.

Milligan and Weiler say any buyer must have a track record in multifamily housing, including rehabbing properties.

“There’s going to be very strict requirements of the new owner due to the fact that we don’t want to be in this position five years from now,” Milligan said.

The city has made it clear they would like the property to remain affordable housing, but Milligan said callers have expressed other potential uses for the property such as student or senior housing.

Local housing news:Last residents forced to vacate troubled Galloway Village Apartments in Prairie Township

The listing describes the property as a “rehab or redevelopment opportunity” and notes that the property’s amenities “include basketball court, media room and cyber café. Beautiful city views close to downtown Columbus, near the King Lincoln District, Franklin University and Columbus State Community College. Plenty of parking.”

Weiler points out that the property is in a federal opportunity zone, offering significant tax advantages for investors.

But Weiler also knows the property needs a full rehab.

“It’s a total renovation,” he said. “The shell’s fine, but you’ve gone to do everything from the floor to the roof.”

Latitude Five25’s troubled past

The sale is the latest chapter in the troubled history of the low-income apartment complex, which has towered over Interstate 670 for nearly 60 years.

The property, which has gone by several names, declined for years before being acquired in 2021 by Paxe Latitude, an arm of a New Jersey-based real-estate investment firm.

Under the firm’s ownership, the property continued to deteriorate, with tenants complaining of a lack of heat and air, no hot water, power outages, regular breakdowns of elevators, along with rats, roaches and other issues. Maintenance problems were compounded by crime, which led Columbus Police to respond to about 1,000 calls to the property in recent years.

Within months of Paxe Latitude acquiring the property, the city obtained a court order requiring the owner to beef up security and respond efficiently to maintenance issues at the property.

After a lack of response from owners, the Columbus City Attorney’s office filed a contempt action against the owner of the complex, asking the court to appoint a receiver and ordering the owner to pay for repairs and relocation costs for residents.

Residents gradually left the complex until December 2022, when, over the Christmas holiday, the final 152 occupied apartments were vacated.

Two months later, Franklin County Environmental Judge Stephanie Mingo levied $4.3 million in fines after holding Paxe Latitude in contempt. The property was placed in the hands of New Perspective Asset Management, which hired The Robert Weiler Co. to find a buyer.

“I’m expecting that it will probably change hands in six to nine months,” said Milligan, with New Perspective. “This would be a nice thing to have off the city’s plate.”