City of Edmond requests forced sale of apartment labeled a public nuisance

Edmond is asking an Oklahoma County judge to hang a for-sale sign on an eastside apartment building labeled a public nuisance.

An attorney representing the city filed a petition in district court this week that asks for an abatement order that would require the current owners of New Life Village, 1300 E Ayers, to sell the property to cure repeated problems the city has documented with the building.

Edmond's city council on Feb. 26 unanimously declared the 90-unit, three-story building a public nuisance "due to the existence of a building which is dangerous to public health or safety because of damage, decay or other conditions, including the existence of fire or explosion hazards which endanger public safety and the existence of activities which endanger public peace, health, safety, morals or welfare," its petition states.

Edmond's code and fire inspectors repeatedly identified violations of building, fire, property maintenance, health and nuisance codes at the building, while reported criminal acts at the property required Edmond to respond with "an extraordinary amount of law enforcement resources," the petition also states.

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The property is owned, operated and managed by Edmond Medical Complex LLC, Rayesh K. Narula, Rajesh K. Narula and Raj Kumari Narula, the petition states.

It also reveals BMA 451 LLC, believed to be a domestic limited liability company, holds a real estate mortgage with power of sale on the property.

DW Investors LLC, a foreign limited liability company licensed to transact business in Oklahoma, could also hold interests in the property. In an amended petition, it was dropped from the lawsuit.

A forced sale is one of several fixes Edmond could have sought to abate nuisance

While its owners may fight Edmond's request for the judge to order the property's sale, it might be their cheapest way out.

Edmond could have requested the judge to force them to spend cash to either make needed repairs to bring the property up to code or to demolish the brick building entirely.

If the judge forces a sale, it would be up to the new owner to bring the property into compliance with health, safety, fire and building code standards or take the 5.72 acres it sits upon back to bare earth so the site could be redeveloped into something new.

Elected Edmond leaders threatened to condemn the property as early as 2018.

By then, it already had been cited for numerous health and safety violations since 2014, including once when Oklahoma City-County's Health Department investigated complaints of raw sewage filling bath tubs and running out into the building's hallways.

Its owner avoided having the property condemned in 2019 after making ordered repairs and obtaining the council's approval to change its zoning so that the complex could be operated exclusively as a hotel.

Later, they obtained another zoning change allowing it to continue to operate as a combination hotel/apartments building, and renamed it New Life Village.

Built in 1984 as an apartment building, the 77,000-square-foot, three-story building already had been owned by multiple parties and was operating as a nursing home when the Narulas purchased it in late 2003.

Before deciding to take the Narulas to court on March 11, current members of Edmond's city council ordered them to bring the 90-unit structure into compliance with Edmond, health, building and public safety codes, to bring aboard around-the-clock, CLEET-certified security officers to patrol the property and to install a continuously operating video security system.

Court records show the petition, filed March 19, was assigned to Oklahoma County District Court Judge Natalie Mai. A hearing has not yet been scheduled.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Edmond officials ask judge to force sale of New Life Village