St. Paul mayor says city will request emergency receivership on troubled Lowry Apartments
ST. PAUL, Minn. — Dangerous and disgusting conditions in a St. Paul apartment building are getting the attention of the mayor.
Residents of the Lowry Apartments downtown say they're dealing with mold issues, rodent and roach infestations and elevators that haven't worked for days.
Needles and feces sit in the stairwell and hallways.
"You need to see how nasty and filthy it is," said Bernard Barnett, who's lived in the Lowry for more than eight years. "This building has been abandoned, and the people have been abandoned."
Ed Welter says the building's been deteriorating for years with no improvement efforts.
"Management seems to not give a rat's a** about this building whatsoever," he said.
St. Paul inspectors revoked the building's fire certificate of occupancy this month due to dozens of code violations.
The city condemned seven apartments as "unfit for human habitation."
Mayor Melvin Carter toured the building on Monday.
"The living conditions that Madison Equities has their tenants living in is one of the most disgusting things I've ever seen in my entire life," he said.
Madison Equities, the St. Paul real estate company that owns the building, didn't respond to WCCO's multiple requests for comment over the past two weeks.
One of their building managers speaking anonymously told WCCO he was frustrated with his bosses refusing to put any money into improvements.
The Lowry has been foreclosed upon and will go up for sale next week.
Carter says that's not soon enough. The city will request Tuesday that a judge put the building into emergency receivership.
"They are not off the hook," Carter said. "They are responsible. I'm not a lawyer but that ought to be criminal in my opinion, because it's just plain disgusting."
Carter says he's demanding a plan from Madison Equities to relocate everyone who lives in the Lowry.
