Tim Landis
The State Journal-Register
City inspectors, search warrant in hand, declared half of 188 units in the former MacArthur Park Apartments uninhabitable after a building-code raid in the summer of 2011, including six units declared unsafe within the first hour. New owners have invested approximately $18 million to repair both the apartments and the area’s reputation.
The newly named Boulevard Townhomes, 2715 S. MacArthur Blvd., opened for tours Thursday of local elected officials, housing and business representatives as new owners Cohen-Esrey Affordable Partners, of Overland Park, Kansas, near completion of a unit-by-unit upgrade of the housing complex begun in early 2015. The final group of now-184, two-bedroom townhomes should be ready in a few weeks, said Tom Anderson, a managing director for Cohen-Esrey.
It has been a long way back for a complex known before the work primarily for chronic building code and safety violations, abandoned apartments and frequent police calls.
Rents have gone up — costs based on federal affordable housing guidelines now are about $700 a month, depending on the resident and unit type — and the townhomes are only about 25 percent occupied after tenant rules and screening were tightened.
But local officials said the transformation has been dramatic, both for residents and the neighborhood. Police calls for the housing complex that once totaled 50 to 60 a month for crimes from shots fired to drug sales are down to one or two a month, usually for minor incidents.
Grounds have been landscaped, security and lighting upgraded, parking lots repaired and a 3,000-square-foot community garden created, among other improvements. Units now are accessible to people with disabilities.
Cohen-Esrey used a combination of bond sales and tax credits through the Illinois Housing Development Authority to acquire and restore the apartments. Anderson said local property managers have stepped up efforts to bring in new tenants now that the project is nearly finished.
“We’re showing units every week, and we’re processing them,” said Anderson. “We expect to be filled up by the fall.”
Ward 7 Ald. Joe McMenamin had been in office a little more than three months when he joined the surprise inspection team in August 2011. McMenamin recalled the city obtained an administrative search warrant after the former owners refused access to the property.
“Doors were swinging open. There was animal feces inside, there were dead birds inside, holes in the wall, holes in the floor, holes in the ceiling,” McMenamin said Thursday, “They didn’t know we were coming. We had electrical, plumbing, housing, structural and police representatives.
“It is a massive transformation inside and out,” said McMenamin. “Cohen-Esrey is a successful housing, management group and they know how to turn housing around, and that’s what they’ve done here.”
Raven Ahmed, who lived at the former MacArthur Park Apartments for about a year, helped show local officials through model apartments on Thursday in her new job as assistant manager for Boulevard Townhomes.
Ahmed no longer lives in the complex, but she said she regularly talks to new residents, including a few who lived in the old MacArthur Park Apartments.
“They love it. It’s beautiful. It’s peaceful,” said Ahmed. “When they wake up in the morning, they feel like it’s home.”
Joe McMenamin for Ward 7 