/usr/web/www.marshallindependent.com/wp-content/themes/coreV2/single.php
×

City officials discuss issues with new owners of Sunrise Court

MARSHALL — Marshall city officials say the long-term vision to make improvements are desirable at the Sunrise Court Apartments — recently purchased and renamed Suite Liv’n — but that the short-term plan that includes the eviction of all its tenants is causing a frenzy.

Mayor Bob Byrnes confirmed that he had a conversation with the new owners.

“A long-term good solution is the improvement of the property,” Byrnes said. “But the immediate question is where to locate if property is not available to the current residents. Where are they going to live? That’s the question. That’s the question that’s the most important to us.”

Byrnes said the owners claim that roughly 30 percent of the units are occupied, but that there was some confusion over the actual number of filled units.

“The city doesn’t have a good way to verify,” he said. “We don’t have a rental code. The city of Marshall has never had a rental code.”

Tara Onken, economic development director for Marshall Economic Development Authority (EDA), said the number of units currently occupied is more like 60 percent.

“The issue is a little more complex than it originally appeared,” Onken said. “With the new owners, it’s not like they could contact the tenants before they owned it. I think they thought the vacancy rates were higher. We’re finding that the vacancy rate is around 40 percent, which means there are about 60 percent of the units right now being lived in.”

Onken said city officials are working to provide relocation assistance to tenants, who say they received letters late last week that request “that all tenants vacate the premises” by Oct. 19.

“The city is working to be the best resource possible for the tenants, whether it’s this building or other buildings,” Onken said. “When people call us to find a place to live, we help them with that. So that’s been our role, to provide relocation assistance in that regard.”

Onken said there’s no question that the long-term vision of the property “to reinvent and redevelop it into something better is a positive thing,” but that it does create a challenge in the short-term.

“There are 60 units of people who are trying to find somewhere to live,” she said. “We feel for them and we want to do everything we can to help them. They’re Marshall residents and they contribute here. We don’t want them to leave.”

According to Onken, reports from tenants have varied.

“We’ve heard of some people who found places already, but then we’ve heard from some who haven’t had any luck,” Onken said. “One of the problems is that these units are what we call ‘naturally affordable,’ where they’re not necessarily subsidized, so finding another unit of similar price and type is difficult. While there might be other openings that are more of that market-rate rent, it’s going to be a couple hundred dollars difference a month for rent. That’s where the struggle comes in, too.”

Onken said the situation is also alarming from an economic development standpoint.

“Our office looks at the workforce and housing, making sure that the businesses and industry in town have a place to house their workforce,” she said. “There’s the family units that are in distress, but it also puts our major employers, where those people work, into panic mode. So we are trying to mitigate that as much as possible.”

Byrnes said he stressed to the new ownership group the need to find a resolution.

“They seemed open to that,” he said. “But clearly, they didn’t have a plan in place for that.”

Newsletter

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox
Are you a paying subscriber to the newspaper? *
   

Starting at $4.38/week.

Subscribe Today