Unlivable Latitude Five25 apartments listed for sale, seeking major rehab

Watch a previous report on the Latitude Five25 settlement in the video player above

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – An East Side apartment complex whose tenants were evacuated over a year ago due to unsafe living conditions is on the market, ready for rehabilitation.

The Latitude Five25 apartments are for sale for a “negotiable” price, according to a listing of the complex posted Monday. The offering memorandum compiled by a local real estate firm highlights the complex’s proximity to Downtown, desirable views from its balconies and amenities including a basketball court and cyber cafe.

But first-time flippers need not apply; the court isn’t going to allow just any buyer to take over the storied pair of 15-story towers.

“It’s going to be a hands-on project, and it needs somebody who knows how to do the rehab and manage a property, an inner-city property,” said Skip Weiler with The Robert Weiler Company. “We can’t have somebody, an out-of-town owner, who ignores it, does not maintain it, doesn’t manage it.”

The Robert Weiler Company was hired by New Perspective Asset Management, the receivership group overseeing the complex, to find a buyer to make the property inhabitable again. Whoever purchases the property will be undertaking an extensive task.

The apartments have been vacant since December 2022, when the city ordered residents to vacate the property due to burst water pipes and a lack of heat. But the pair of towers on Sawyer Boulevard, visible from Interstates 670 and 71, had been under the city’s scrutiny long before that for repeated bug infestations, feces-contaminated stairwells and other unsanitary conditions.

Last February, a judge ordered the owners, New Jersey-based Paxe Latitude, to pay nearly $4.4 million in fines and outstanding utility fees, including $2.5 million to compensate the former tenants. The court also found that in trying to rehabilitate the building, the owners hired contractors who didn’t comply with law or industry standards when handling asbestos, leaving many residents’ belongings contaminated with the cancerous fibers.

The owners, who launched a failed bankruptcy claim in New Jersey, never paid the $2.5 million contempt fee. In January, the lender financing the owners of the Latitude Five25 apartments entered into a $1.5 million settlement with the city in lieu of paying the $2.5 million. That money is intended for former tenants, many of whom lost property due to the asbestos contamination.

Who is the right buyer for Latitude Five25? Someone with “deep pockets,” Weiler said. He’s biased, he said, but he’d prefer the apartments go to a local group who can be attentive to the property.

Any buyer will need to be approved by the court before the apartments can change hands. And while there’s no requirement that the buyer preserve the existing structures, Weiler hopes whoever purchases the 392-unit complex decides to renovate, not demolish.

“I think it’s too many units, too large a building, and too valuable a building to be knocked down,” Weiler said.

Proposals are due at 5 p.m. May 31 -- and Weiler said he's already seen a sizeable amount of interest. He hopes to enter contracts by June or July, with a sale finalized within months.