Downtown landlord Jean Nash bites tenant and goes to jail?

[PaulJ]

Thats what I heard... Anybody know the story, or is it urban myth?

[Gannon]

Anyone who's ever dealt with her can understand that this is at least a distinct possibility.


If I could tell she was batshit crazy enough to avoid taking on as a landlord...


[[...and a racist pig of a human as well...and homophobe unless you waved money at her first [[she always likes the green)...)



...then it should've been quite apparent to anyone closer to the normal distribution of the bell curve.



Sure would like to have confirmation of this...and hope whomever got bit gets their blood tested. She might be rabid, too.


Cheers

[fryar]

Huh. What properties does she own/manage? It took a fair amount of googling just to determine that she may be the owner of Marie N Primo Management, which is listed as having its offices across from the downtown Y. But that building appears to have multiple businesses, and I never noticed any signs advertising apartments for rent or anything when I walked by there on my way to the Y in my half-hearted attempts to get in shape already. I don't think it's 206 E Grand River where she's biting her tenants.

It'd be nice to know what places to maybe avoid renting at in order to avoid rewarding intolerance is why I'm asking.

[PaulJ]

I rented from her in the mid 2000's. She is quite a character and mean-spirited doesn't even begin to describe her.

I spent a lot of time talking to Joe Primo while I lived there, apparently a relative of Marie. If I remember the story correctly, Marie owned the building and passed away. Marie was married to Jean's brother and he also passed away, leaving the business to her. Joe had health problems and was elderly, and would be present in the building office many times when I would bring Jean the rent check. I sat & chatted with him many times, even went to his house somewhere in the Grosse Pointe's and repaired his telephone wiring once.

He told me that Jean was pretty much always a miserable lady, never married, and he resented the fact that she was left to run the business. I later heard, again second hand from a guy who used to do odds/ends work in the building whom I also hired to help me move out -- that Joe had a serious stroke and was not found for quite some time because Jean was not talking to him at the time and therefore he was not checked on, and was found later collapsed in his home.


I do not know what's become of any of those folks as I moved out of Detroit in 2006, and out-of-state in 2008. I can't even tell you that any of this is true, but it is what was told to me by Joe and further by the guy who's name I don't remember that worked there. This was in the years when the Y was first being broken ground on, and the old Opera House garage still stood out the window of my loft/apartment.

Anyhow, I caught word of this story today and was wondering if anyone knew more. What I heard was that a retail tenant of hers had a disagreement with her that ended with her biting them and ending up in jail... Jean manages the Merchants Apparel building, which consists of 206 E Grand River, and the other addresses on Grand River and Broadway that constitute that building. The 206 E Grand River lofts are only a portion of the property, with what used to be a mens beauty salon and mens clothign store constituting most of the rest of the retail space. Spectacles was in there too. I don't know whats in there now but thats what *was* there...


While I think it's surprising to hear, I also wouldn't discount it based on her personality. This is the lady who chased away my guests from the common areas in our building, and also offered to allow me to store my motorcycle in her building while I lived there, later padlocking the door on the grounds that we agreed on "storage, not garaging" whatever that means. The only reason I got it back without confrontation was that she forgot to lock the other door to the room that it was stored in and I snuck it out after dark...

Very cool building, it might become a lively spot when the management changes...