Frustration mounting for tenants of apartment complex in downtown Springfield

Frustration is mounting over the condition of one of Springfield's premier downtown living quarters.

The owners of Lincoln Tower Apartments at 520 S. Second St., Illinois-based Lincoln Tower Holdings, LLC and Delaware-based Strategic Lincoln, LLC, have been taken to court by the city of Springfield over a crumbling underground garage for residents and other fire code violations, said city attorney Gregory Moredock.

The apartment manager from Friedman Real Estate Management handling the property stiffed a May 10 meeting with residents he called with Ward 5 Ald. Lakeisha Purchase.

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Residents of the 17-story complex, across from the Capitol Building, have expressed their displeasure to the city council numerous times, including at the May 14 committee of the whole meeting, over other issues like faulty elevators and backed up trash chutes.

"We need answers," said Hewitt Douglass during the public comment section of the Committee of the Whole meeting, which was attended by several other Lincoln Tower residents. "The residents are frustrated.

"We're asking for more pressure to be put on whoever pressure needs to be put on to make things a little bit better up there. It's very important that we keep doing what we do and that's coming here and begging you to just listen to us, but we need action."

Douglass, 70, said the May 10 meeting was attended by 30 to 40 residents.

Friedman, which is out Farmington Hills, Michigan, was ordered by Circuit Court Judge Adam Giganti in March to act as the receiver and manage the property.

"I thought it was really disrespectful how we (were) played with," Purchase said of the no-show and not being able to address residents' concerns. "I don't like when people mess with my intelligence."

The manager, Sontae Massey later texted her, Purchase said, saying he was told by Friedman that he wasn't allowed to give updates to the residents.

Purchase and others at Lincoln Tower confirmed that Massey was fired Friday morning. No representative from Friedman was on-site Friday afternoon and company officials didn't immediately return a call from the newspaper.

Moredock said he has agreed to talk to residents about what the city has done to address the problems at the property.

"If (he) walks them through the process, I think they'll be a little more at ease," Purchase said.

Douglass said the problem with the building's working elevators was amplified recently when his wife, Victoria, had a medical emergency.

"We sat in that hallway, I know, eight to 10 minutes, waiting on that elevator to come back up," Douglass said.

Another time, a 93-year-old resident, Purchase said, was forced to sleep downstairs three nights in a row because elevators weren't working, and she couldn't walk up to her 17th floor apartment.

"That's a problem for me," Purchase said. "I would be (angry) if my grandma lived there."

Residents who have cars haven't been able to park in an underground garage there since March.

That's meant, Purchase said, using a parking ramp at Fourth Street and Capitol Avenue and another parking lot at Fourth and Cook Street.

At the May 14 meeting, Ward 2 Ald. Shawn Gregory wondered if the city shouldn't condemn the building. He tamped down those remarks when reached late last week by an SJ-R reporter.

"I stand with whatever (the residents) want to do," Gregory said. "But the fact they've been before us three to four times concerns me. It's getting to the point where we have to send a message."

Purchase, also reached later in the week, said she would be against condemning the building.

"These are people's lives we're dealing with," she said.

Opening in 1968, the 199-unit building has long been a prime spot for Springfield urban dwellers and out-of-town legislators, like former Speaker of the House Michael Madigan, wanting their own accommodations.

When George Ryan was still governor, there was a plan for the State of Illinois to buy both the 17-story residential area and a smaller business building that faces Second Street.

The Department of Central Management Services negotiated a $21 million purchase price for the property, but at the time, the buildings were valued at $11.1 million for property tax purposes, prompting complaints that the state was paying too much for them, and the deal was later nixed.

Contact Steven Spearie: 217-622-1788; sspearie@sj-r.com; X, twitter.com/@StevenSpearie.

This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: Frustration mounts for Lincoln Tower Apartments residents