Terrace Meadows on the rebound
Apartment owner claims employees sabotaged facility in 2021-2022
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The Terrace Meadows Apartments gained attention in early 2022 when residents there raised concerns about living conditions and a lack of maintenance. Those concerns were heard, and the complex’s ownership has spent the past year making things right.
But the conditions didn’t have to fall so drastically. According to Sabastian Meriweather, a representative with Operations 765 LLC, which manages properties for the investment conglomerate Persistent Properties that owns the apartments, the people hired to maintain the apartments were directly responsible for the damage and decline.
“We hired a series of management companies, but they didn't do a good job,” said Meriweather. “One of them we had to sue for practices that weren't great or conducive to effective management. This happened for a year or two, and then it ended up in the hands of another management company,
“They presented themselves well, and the manager, Kristen Castro, passed a background check. It looked like a pretty good fit, and it started out really good.”
Unfortunately for Persistent and the residents, the people Castro hired weren’t as reliable, Meriweather claimed. In fact, they allegedly sabotaged the properties. In 2022, The Kokomo Lantern reported on a number of serious issues with the apartments, from failing plumbing to structural damage to uncollected trash scattered about the property.
“They're the ones that were causing these issues,” Meriweather said of the on-site property managers. “Things overflowed with raw sewage. They vandalized the property because they wanted to shut it down. They were mad because they couldn't continue to collect money and live for free.”
The property managers lived on the premises, and along with millions of Americans, they were given an amnesty period during the COVID pandemic during which property owners could not evict residents for non-payment of rent. When that moratorium was lifted, Persistent began the eviction process on delinquent tenants. That, Meriweather said, is when the sabotage began.
“They held the property hostage,” said Meriweather. “One of them actually stole one of the company vehicles and ran it into a field. They got caught on the property cameras having sex in the car. They trashed the car and left it out in the field.”
One resident, however, made a difference. Nicholas Hunt became concerned about the safety of the complex. He reported the conditions and contacted the Lantern. Legal action from the Howard County Health Department followed, bringing the situation to the attention of the property owners.
“We completely gutted that building after we secured it,” said Meriweather. “We've completely revamped it and remodeled it. And we have a whole leasing team from Indianapolis to help out with the new management team. We're going to move on to each building and do the exact same thing.”
Meriweather said Persistent’s intention is to upgrade the apartments over the next 12-24 months. The efforts so far have paid dividends. The legal action from the county was dropped at the beginning of May.
“Our goal at this point is just to provide housing for Kokomo,” said Meriweather. “We don't really want to look into the past. (The apartments) are in a good area. Our application processes have been enhanced. We won't allow anybody with a criminal record, active evictions, long-standing multiple evictions, or anything that would indicate they're going to be violent or do drugs.
“We want the buildings to be not an eyesore. We want to offer housing for students, single mothers, young families getting started, elderly people. We just want to provide housing for good folks that want to go to work and not do crime.”
That includes Nicholas Hunt.
“Mr. Hunt actually still lives at the property,” said Meriweather. “And once he understood what was going on, he has become a model tenant and is one of the biggest success stories that I've had in my career.”
Apartments at Terrace Meadows are available for rent now. To arrange a tour or begin the application process, visit https://koko.tenantcloud.com or call 765-450-5584.