ST. LOUIS — The Ely Walker Lofts Condominium Association will have to hire licensed security personnel, install a security camera and begin using a new locking and access system under a settlement finalized with the city Tuesday.
Vic Alston and Sid Chakraverty, the brothers behind controversial apartment and development firms Asprient Properties and Lux Living, control the condo board that oversees maintenance, security and other spending on the 174-unit Ely Walker. Companies tied to the family own more than half of the units in the building at 1520 Washington Avenue, which has been the site of unruly parties and the high-profile shooting death of 16-year-old Terrion Smith in March.
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St. Louis officials on May 2 sent the condo board a public nuisance notice for “disturbances, shootings and other unruly behavior.” The city’s consent order with Ely Walker said police received 247 calls from the building from Aug. 31, 2021, through last month.
The settlement comes a day before a scheduled public hearing over the St. Louis Department of Public Safety’s designation of the building as a “public nuisance,” a process that could have led to further sanctions against the building. That hearing has now been canceled.
“This illustrates how City departments are working together to improve public safety both Downtown and hold problem property owners accountable throughout the city,” Public Safety Department spokesman Monte Chambers said in a statement. “Our ultimate goal for Ely Walker Lofts is to be a safe and peaceful location for residents and the community, and we hope the measures in this decree move us towards that goal.”
Anshul Sathyan, Chakraverty and Alston’s cousin and the condo board president who signed the agreement, did not respond to a request for comment. Condo board attorney Elia Ellis didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment. Nor did Chakraverty, Alston or their attorney, Ira Berkowitz.
Under the terms of the agreement, the condo board must provide residents with a “24-hour, non-emergency customer service line” and begin using a newly installed Latch Access Control system for entrances and on elevators. It must also lock access points to the rooftop, ensure interior stairwells are “egress only” and install a security camera on the front of the building.
Security personnel from a private security firm also must be on site during certain times of the week, according to Matt Moak, a city attorney who worked on the agreement.
“I think this is a significant development for the property,” Moak said. “If they follow through with this it’s going to have an immediate impact.”
The agreement released to the newspaper had the times when security are supposed to be on site redacted, which Moak said was to ensure bad actors don’t know exactly when security are present. But he said the times they are required to be at the building are based on an police analysis of “peak times of criminal activity.”
If the Ely Walker board, which a former employee has said is controlled by Chakraverty and Alston, fails to follow terms of the agreement, the city could “immediately reconvene for a hearing that could result in the appointment of a receiver,” according to the settlement.
Residents have been pushing for more security in the building for months. An official with the former management company hired by the Ely Walker board, Smith Management, told tenants the company gave the board bids for security and indicated it ended its management contract because of a lack of security at the building.
Some residents remained skeptical that the agreement will lead to real change. Owners say the condo board ignores their requests and that rules against short-term rentals are broken with no repercussions. Madelyn Munsell, who rents a unit through Alston company , said there is already an after-hours emergency line, but the operator is often unresponsive. She also said residents have already been promised security on the weekends.
“However, we’ve had many nights without security in sight,” she said.
The agreement doesn’t have enough specificity to ensure that the board will make changes, she said. And it doesn’t address code violations, including a fire alarm that has not been fully functioning for months. Munsell said she could hear it beeping, indicating a problem, Tuesday afternoon.
“To say I’m disappointed is an understatement,” she said of the agreement. “I was really hoping the city would take this seriously. They had an opportunity to advocate for St. Louisians.”
“And we still don’t know if we have a working fire alarm,” she added.
Originally posted at 7:25 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 6.