Jeffersonian Houze evacuated due to heat

**Henry Whalley** · June-16-22, 11:26 AM

Deadline Detroit | No chill: Detroit high rise issues notice to vacate with air conditioning out

**Gistok** · June-16-22, 02:32 PM

Sort of makes me glad to live in a house...

The Jeffersonian, arguably Detroit's largest apartment tower, appears to have some sleazy owners [[or had some). If I were a renter, I definitely would check online rating sources before deciding to live anywhere in an apartment.

**Zacha341** · June-16-22, 02:54 PM

^ Yee-aah! Talk about being a captive audience!

This building has seen better days...

What a DUMP!

**Richard** · June-16-22, 04:43 PM

It says the A/C had been inoperable for years how come now it is a problem ? Outside of - good way to get tenants out.

When I first got out of the service and relocated we lived in a second story old house 1 bedroom apartment,8 people,no A/C and days like today with 126 heat index.

In Florida the landlord is not responsible for providing tenants with A/C,only heat.

Not to go off course but I keep seeing theses examples and have to wonder how that whole WFH thing is impacted,now these people have to find another base,lots saying summer storms knocking out internet for hours and power,they are already predicting upcoming blackouts or rolling brownouts,I agree with apartments you are limited in how you can deal with stuff.

Apparently as explained in the link,this place has had issues for many years but people stick with it,as cheap as houses are to buy in the city,why pay $2000 a month for a dump of an apartment?

**Gistok** · June-16-22, 05:47 PM

^ Agree... for spending that kind of money, you shouldn't have to deal with that kind of bullshit.

**Henry Whalley** · June-16-22, 05:52 PM

Originally Posted by Gistok

...The Jeffersonian, arguably Detroit's largest apartment tower, appears to have some sleazy owners [[or had some).

Detroit's building inspectors are MIA and possibly corrupt. At least that was my experience some years ago when the department's phone number was never answered. At first I thought 'Oh, they are all out in the field diligently working' but soon came to me senses and concluded 'Oh, they are all derelict'.

**Rocket** · June-17-22, 11:31 AM

Originally Posted by Henry Whalley

Detroit's building inspectors are MIA and possibly corrupt. At least that was my experience some years ago when the department's phone number was never answered. At first I thought 'Oh, they are all out in the field diligently working' but soon came to me senses and concluded 'Oh, they are all derelict'.

As a rule, the inspectors would only answer the phones between 7 and 8 am. Then they are out in the field, and are not apparently provided with phones by the city.

Though, for the last 3 years they have been almost non-existent. I think like a lot of city employees, they got full pay while being told not to come to work. The entire City-County building was shuttered for 2 years because of covid best I could tell. As of last Fall the recordings still said it was closed. I think a few things have opened recently.

I haven't seen an inspector of any type since mid 2019, and I think you'll find the businesses licenses of most buildings in Detroit have expiry dates that read 2018 or 2019.

**One Shot** · June-17-22, 01:05 PM

The name on the top of that place looks like graffiti. A huge place with great views slipping.

**K-slice** · June-17-22, 01:54 PM

I was involved professionally with a company that ran this building and it has reached that point where major capital investments are going to be needed, and significant rental increases to pay for them.

The owners had bled the place dry, deferring maintenance and stagnating rents. just so squeeze as much as they could from the place while putting just enough in to keep the lights on. They even let residents do their own "renovations" in the apartments including knocking down walls to adjacent apartments that were vacant. I had never seen anything like it.

Crumbling garage, constantly broken elevators, and now the AC is out. The building needs a total reset and the major systems replaced.

**Henry Whalley** · June-17-22, 02:57 PM

Originally Posted by K-slice

...The building needs a total reset and the major systems replaced.

Perhaps the city should just condemn it?

**Danny** · June-17-22, 04:19 PM

My Aunt used to live in the awful place. I'm glad my family help her move out of there years ago.

**Meddle** · June-17-22, 05:42 PM

Originally Posted by K-slice

The owners had bled the place dry, deferring maintenance and stagnating rents. just so squeeze as much as they could from the place while putting just enough in to keep the lights on.

Crumbling garage, constantly broken elevators, and now the AC is out. The building needs a total reset and the major systems replaced.

Sounds like they need to be jailed.

**stasu1213** · June-17-22, 11:34 PM

The owners probably have a friend on City Council who have the inspectors to look the other way. Whenever a building name changed from Jeffersonian to Jefferson Houze you know that the owner is what they call "ghetto"and probably using it as a cash cow such as Greg Jackson is using Lafayette Towers as one

**Zacha341** · June-18-22, 11:54 AM

That's incredible and a fine nasty-pot recipe for what we have here. What if some of those walls broken down are/ were weight bearing? Goodness, what 'low-rent' solution for what is now a 'low-rent' style set up.

An elder friend wanted to move into that joint and we made sure she didn't!

Originally Posted by K-slice

The owners had bled the place dry, deferring maintenance and stagnating rents. just so squeeze as much as they could from the place while putting just enough in to keep the lights on. They even let residents do their own "renovations" in the apartments including knocking down walls to adjacent apartments that were vacant. I had never seen anything like it...

**ABetterDetroit** · June-19-22, 09:47 PM

Now that Fannie Mae owns the building out of the foreclosure auction I would expect things to start to move along to find a new owner quicker with proper due diligence. I would venture to guess that in the currant market and with a full rehab that building could be a strong producing property. Unfortunately to do a full rehab in would most likely involve getting the residents out of the building for the construction timeline. Never a good situation for the currant residents.

**K-slice** · June-20-22, 08:21 AM

Originally Posted by Meddle

Sounds like they need to be jailed.

Problem is, they are long gone, washed their hands of the property years ago when the Houze people bought it with the intent to undertake a massive renovation. They didn't complete their due diligence thoroughly and got in way over their heads.

I have seen some crazy things in this building.

**Richard** · June-20-22, 08:39 AM

Originally Posted by ABetterDetroit

Now that Fannie Mae owns the building out of the foreclosure auction I would expect things to start to move along to find a new owner quicker with proper due diligence. I would venture to guess that in the currant market and with a full rehab that building could be a strong producing property. Unfortunately to do a full rehab in would most likely involve getting the residents out of the building for the construction timeline. Never a good situation for the currant residents.

Maybe flipping it into condos,they have gotten into the flipping market as of late and had to pay a $53 million fine for buying properties in low income parts and fixing and reselling above market rates while removing low cost home ownership options.

The part that is concerning is the reports of removing walls inbetween units,not only for the structural issues but they would have been fire rated,which would have made it a potential death trap should a major fire break out.

Most cities that would have been enough to shut the building down long ago.

They can flip it to HUD and make it below market rate units while collecting a few million in order to offset costs of rehabilitation.

Agreed no matter what happens not a good situation for current residents but now it will morph into not a good situation for taxpayers in the city as a whole because most likely it will end up being another large property that will be using tax captures for the next 25 years.