Take the Money and Run
Quick & Quirky gives pause this week to consider the residents of an apartment complex in Pawtucket, R.I. After their building was foreclosed upon, the city declared it condemned, and then the landlord continued to collect rent for July. Why residents were still living in a foreclosed, condemned apartment building is a bit of a head-scratcher, but we’ll chalk it up to hard times. It just shows the multifamily economic recovery isn’t being felt yet in all corners of the country and that unscrupulous individuals are still out there looking to take advantage of the misfortunes of others: Although the White Lion Realty group that owns the Pawtucket pad in question directed the landlord not to collect July rent, he did so anyways, to the tune of $2,500. And he hasn’t been seen since. Check out the video after the jump.
Breathe Easier
The Boston Globe is throwing its weight behind the growing movement to ban smoking in multifamily apartment buildings, an effort that the iconic newspaper calls the “nextfrontier” in the fight against Big Tobacco. In an editorial supporting the city’s move to prohibit smoking in its 64 public housing developments within the next three years, the Globe points to data that says individuals that receive subsidized public housing assistance (or any public support, for that matter), are much more likely to have asthma than those who do not, arguing that allowing smoking in public housing further exacerbates the asthma factor.While questions regarding privacy and civil liberties always seem to flare up when apartments elect to go smoke-free, Quick & Quirky has yet to hear of a smoke-out gone awry. I mean c’mon, the Irish don’t even smoke in their pubs anymore.
That’s Some Crazy S#!t
Residents at the Arnolds Park Apartments in Sioux Falls, S.D., got a double-dose of trouble recently when sewage backups flooded ground-floor units not once but twice in a single week. The city is offering $5,000 to each renter for damage caused by the backup and ensuing floods, and has instructed residents to dispose of “anything wet.” Arnold Murray Property Management says that won’t be enough to cover losses by some residents and is going the extra mile to relocate affected residents to new apartments. Switch-outs in sewage pumping stations were to blame for the backups, and city officials went door to door following the flooding to assess damage after the “peak flow” receded.
Forking it Over
While we’ve been busy trying to figure out why for-sale condos suddenly become “apartments” again when the units are in New York or London or the price hits the $10 million-plus threshold, another luxury unit has come and gone: a six-bedroom, two-floor penthouse at One Hyde Park in Knightsbridge, London, sold this month for $220 million, making it the priciest apartment ever sold in the world, according to UK real estate website Holiday Lettings. What do you get for a quarter of a billion dollars? Tryviews of the London skyline, private wine tasting facilities, bullet-proof windows, a panic room,privatetunnel access to the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, and 24-hour room service to start. The sale of the penthouse unit pretty much makes good on Nick and Christian Candy’s purchase of One Hyde Park in 2004—the Candy team paid $235 million for the entire building.
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