City Owned Properties at Allied Drive

The City of Madison made the decision to buy properties on Allied Drive last summer. The properties have 129 apartments and 9 buildings. Since then, we have slowly emptied the apartments and haven’t moved forward on much of anything. Last September we had four days of a big splashy public meetings . . . and not much has happened since then.

Mostly, it boils down to having to make a decision about how much of the property will be home ownership and how much will be rental. And then how affordable will the units be and will people on Allied Drive be able to afford to live there, or will they be displaced from the neighborhood.

So, the City, in its typical fashion, have been making sure that as many families leave the buildings as possible, so that technically, no one will be displaced. I believe there were 80 families when we bought the buildings. Last I heard a month or so ago, there were only 40. I suspect, looking at this months profit and loss statements, that there are now even less, despite our resolution to allow people to continue to live in the units.

I noticed something else interesting in the profit and loss statements. If we are emptying the units and boarding up buildings, why are we spending money on “unit preparation”? In January, we were charged $3,858 on “unit preparation”. $1,729.41 in February and 624.62 in March. Some of this is for new carpeting, new appliances and painting.

The other thing I noticed was that they charged us the following charges.

January
Apartment Preparation – Maintenance Payroll – $2,477
Commons and Exterior – Maintenance Payroll – Meyer – $2,664.50
General Repairs – Maintenance Payroll – Meyer – $2337.50
Professional Management – $5,100
Total Maintenance and Management – $12,579 of the $26,870.79 total expenses for the month
That month, we were in the black $720.88, with $27,591.67 in rental income.

February
Apartment Preparation – Maintenance Payroll – $745
Commons and Exterior – Maintenance Payroll – Meyer – $3,349
General Repairs – Maintenance Payroll – Meyer – $5,077
Professional Management – $5,000
Total Maintenance and Management – $14,171 of the $49,257.67 total expenses for the month
That month, we lost $25,505.67 , with $24,191.88 in rental income. I presume the majority of the losses are because the previous month’s utility bill was only 482.61 and February’s bill was $19,528.44.

March
Apartment Preparation – Maintenance Payroll – $352.50
Commons and Exterior – Maintenance Payroll – Meyer – $3,257
General Repairs – Maintenance Payroll – Meyer – $3,125.50
Professional Management – $5,000
Total Maintenance and Management – $11,735 of the $23,200.33 total expenses for the month
That month, we lost $1,908.28, with $21,292.05 in rental income. Utilities were only $1,044.01.

Wouldn’t you think that with less than 40 families living in the units, we could manage the buildings with our current staff and do our own maintenance? And I know that they have to board up the buildings and do a few things, but do we really need to be spending that much in maintenance on buildings we are likely tearing down? And, if we’re going to be paying this money for management, shouldn’t we be moving people in to these units and getting income?

This whole thing seems so absurd. I sure hope that now that the election is over, this new council takes this on, and soon.

Note: Sorry, no time for links this morning.