ST. LOUIS, Mo. (KMOV) – For months now, News 4 has reported on the countless, ongoing issues at Ely Walker Lofts in downtown St. Louis. Now, residents from a property across the street, managed by the same company that runs Ely Walker’s condominium board, are coming forward with their own concerns.
“People don’t feel safe here. I don’t feel safe here,” Lexi Devereaux said.
Devereaux has only lived at the Art Loft apartments for a few months. She said she has been fed up with management since her move-in.
“I’ve seen a couple of cars that were broken into and shot at inside the parking lot,” Justin Richards, another resident, said.
Car break-ins, shootings near their apartment and more.
“The flooding, and the plumbing, and the cockroaches, that’s every day,” Kelly Jurotich, a former resident said.
All of these concerns come straight from former and current Art Loft residents. Consequently, these lofts are the sister property of Ely Walker Lofts, which News 4 has investigated for the last year.
“It’s infuriating because, I mean, you see that it’s a systemic problem in all of their properties, and then they’re trying to buy more properties and nobody’s listening to us. This is not the way people should be living,” Jurotich said.
Residents let News 4 into Art Loft Sunday, where we saw potential mold on walls, erosion throughout the building, and what residents said is an outdated, often broken elevator.
“Fire and rescue always come here. Last week, they came here three or four times because people kept getting stuck in the elevator,” Devereaux explained.
Tenants showed us multiple videos of St. Louis firefighters outside their building and working on their elevator. One video, from Oct. 19 shows firefighters working to rescue a resident out of the building’s freight elevator, a secondary elevator, which residents said, management told them to use while their main elevator was down for weeks.
“I don’t feel safe in it. I got trapped between two floors one time,” Richards said.
News 4 found a sign next to the freight elevator that states, “Not for public use. Please use the passenger elevator in front of the building.”
“It just seems like the people that own the building, they either don’t know, or they don’t care, and it just seems like I’m wasting my money,” Richards added.
Tenants said they believe some of the issues could be addressed by management, but haven’t despite dozens of maintenance requests.
“There are so many inconveniences that can be avoided here if maintenance and management would understand that there are problems and take care of them appropriately,” Devereaux said.
In the last month, St. Louis City leaders have taken legal action against Ely Walker Lofts. Now, Art Loft residents said they want the same.
“I want our voices to be heard, and I want the whole city to understand how these people are treating us, is not okay. This is not the downtown experience that I wanted to have when I lived here,” Devereaux explained.
News 4 reached out to STL CityWide, which manages this property, but we have not heard back.
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