Real Estate

NE Residents Sue Over Proposed Fire Station

WASHINGTON INFORMER — The D.C. residents who live close to the intersection of Minnesota Avenue and Nannie Helen Burroughs Avenue in Northeast want affordable housing in their neighborhood.

Published

8 years ago

March 1, 2019

Oakland Post

By James Wright

The D.C. residents who live close to the intersection of Minnesota Avenue and Nannie Helen Burroughs Avenue in Northeast want affordable housing in their neighborhood — not a fire station — and they recently went to court to make that point.

Fifteen plaintiffs who live in the city’s Deanwood section on Minnesota Avenue’s northern end made an appearance at D.C. Superior Court on Feb. 19 to stop the city government and a development company, Valor Minnesota LLC, from building a fire station on the property of 4409 Minnesota Avenue NE.

Dorothy Douglas, the advisory neighborhood commissioner for District 7D03 in Ward 7, lives several feet from the 4409 property and is not happy about what is going on with it.

“I am a long-term homeowner of 4401 Minnesota Avenue NE, where I have been a resident for over 35 years,” said Douglas, who once served on the D.C. State Board of Education representing Ward 7. “When I moved into my home, my purpose was to establish a foundation for my children and grandchildren. The neglect and now new proposed use of 4409 has caused me and continues to cause me anxiety and stress worrying if I could lose my home. I am now 70 years old, where peace plays a major factor in my daily living.”

The plaintiffs submitted a motion and memorandum for an injunction to stop the District government and Valor from building the fire station that consists of an Emergency Management Systems and storage facility. The court documents said the construction should cease because of the harm it poses to the residents and the District government should provide an environmental impact study on the property and another on how the project will affect the immediate area, produce a study on the costs of building the fire station when another fire station exists less than half a mile away, and the neighborhood should have the chance through its advisory neighborhood commissioners to have a say on the project.

There has been chemical residue on the property and vehicle explosions took place in November 2018 and in January, according to court documents. The proposed fire station will replace Engine Station #27 located on 4201 Minnesota Ave., N.E., documents say.

The defendants named in the court documents include Valor, Mayor Muriel Bowser (D), Council Chairman Phil Mendelson (D) and Council members Vincent Gray (D-Ward 7) and Robert White (D-At Large), the latter of whom chairs the council’s Committee on Facilities and Procurement.

D.C. Superior Court Senior Associate Judge Russell F. Canan continued the case because the defendants needed more time to prepare. The next court date is March 15.

In 2006, Valor acquired 4409, a former longtime auto repair facility, and worked with the community for years to build affordable housing units. However, Valor dropped the housing project when it has problems with the District of Columbia Board of Zoning Adjustments over zoning requirements and other constraints as well as a decline in the housing market in the neighborhood.

In addition, Valor failed to pay taxes on the property from 2016-2018 as it became an eyesore in the community with abandoned vehicles, storage pipes and debris, with no fence to protect the residents.

The motion and memo said when Valor decided to build the fire station, it did so without community consultation and with the support of the Bowser administration. Douglas’s commission, 7D, voted on Oct. 26, 2017, to oppose the fire station and communicated its action and views to the Bowser administration.

Nevertheless, Mendelson introduced the Valor lease agreement to the council on June 14, 2018, without the consideration of an approval or disapproval resolution, which the plaintiffs say violates city law. Plus, the court documents state that District officials violated another law that mandates that development projects must be considered by the commission in which it is located, and that the commission’s approval or disapproval must be given “great weight.”

“I hope we can work with the community on this,” Gray said. “I hope that we can come to an amicable agreement on this.”

Numerous attempts to contact Valor for comment were unsuccessful.

Rick Tingling-Clemmons, a plaintiff, said he and his neighbors are prepared to vigorously fight the proposed fire station.

“This community has been under constant siege, from 30-plus-year-old development plans to extend Minnesota Avenue through some of the residents’ homes and yards; through unregulated schemes from area profiteers; to developer Valor and the Department of General Services,” Tingling-Clemmons said. “But plaintiffs are committed to fighting for their homes, and to confronting those agencies that seem to be working in the developers’ interest at the expense of the residents’ quality of life. Land in our city is limited and valuable and we will guard our piece of it accordingly.”

This article originally appeared in the Washington Informer.

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Residential Insurance Prices Increase as Insurers Slow Business in California

Joseph Thomas was surprised to receive a notice from his homeowner’s association (HOA) this spring letting him know that there would be an increase in insurance premiums for him and other condominium owners at The Met in Los Angeles’ San Fernando Valley. The letter stated the increase was due to instability in California’s property insurance market. This left Thomas feeling perplexed.

Published

3 years ago

July 20, 2023

Oakland Post

California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara. Official portrait.

By McKenzie Jackson
California Black Media

The letter stated the increase was due to instability in California’s property insurance market. This left Thomas feeling perplexed.

“They said the premium was going up because it was hard to get insurance in California now, and a lot of companies are leaving,” he recalled. “I started Googling because I didn’t believe it. I thought they were robbing us of our money, but I Googled it. It is a thing.”

The withdrawal of large insurance carriers like Allstate and State Farm from California’s insurance market will have a significant impact on claims, at least one claims services provider has told insurance businesses, said Maurice Arnold of Robert Arnold and Company in Oakland.

Remaining carriers must shoulder huge catastrophic risks in the state, which often sees enormous claims from wildfire damage. We can expect insurance carriers to respond by tightening their underwriting and raising premiums. When lots of companies pull out of the market, it puts pressure on exiting companies to try to offset risk with tighter underwriting and increase premiums, Arnold said.

Giant insurance companies are refusing to offer or renew coverage for homes and residential complexes across the state due to the looming threat of wildfires, natural disasters, inflation, and other factors and, as they claim, their ability to get adequate rates to pay for these increased costs.

Since 2020, the state has experienced eight disaster events resulting in overall claims ranging from $20 billion to $50 billion. This has caused an increase in pressure from insurance companies to tighten California’s consumer-friendly policies that have held down rates for years.

California Rental Housing Association (CalRHA) Executive Director Russell Lowery said insurance premium costs have jumped up millions of dollars for property owners in his group.

“With insurers leaving the market that means our members don’t get as competitive of a quote,” he noted.

Lowery said rising insurance prices hit renters’ pockets also.

“Extraordinary increases,” he noted. “The pressure on property owners to pay that cost in the form of higher rent is very real.”

California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara has taken steps to make insurance more affordable for Californians. The steps include expanding FAIR Plan coverage options and requiring insurance companies to acknowledge and reward wildfire safety and mitigation efforts made by property owners. The commissioner is also in ongoing discussions with insurers to address their rate increase requests.

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Bay Area

Development of Marriott Hotel Tower in Downtown Oakland Forces Closure of Uncle Wille’s BBQ, Owners Say

The family-owned business, Uncle Willie’s Original BBQ and Fish, located at 614 14th St. in downtown Oakland, has served local clientele for decades but has been forced to close by the “arrogant abuse” of the Oakland Marriott Hotel and co-developer Lew Wolff, who have been building an 18-story tower next to the restaurant, say family members.

Published

3 years ago

July 10, 2023

Oakland Post

The 18-story development by the Marriott and developer Lew Wolff dwarfs Uncle Willie’s BBQ and Fish, as well as the street view of Uncle Willie’s BBQ and Fish on 14th Street in downtown Oakland. Post file photo.

By Post Staff

The project, which began building several years ago, will provide 276 new guest rooms across from the Elihu M. Harris State Office Building at 1431 Jefferson St.
Family members have now filed a lawsuit against Wolff and the Marriott, saying that during construction of the building, debris, including dangerous objects and dust, have fallen from the building project into the restaurant’s courtyard eating area, forcing Uncle Willie’s to close.

Originally, family members had supported the development. “We were looking forward to (the development), but they didn’t really give us any consideration,” said a family member. “We were assured that during this development, our business and our property wouldn’t be impacted. That just wasn’t the reality.”
Uncle Willie’s was located in the city’s Black Arts Movement Business District, which was created by the city in 2016 to support and encourage small Black businesses in the downtown area, but the city never implemented the resolution.

Uncle Willie, a Parish, Texas, native, moved to Oakland in 1970 after serving in Air Force during the Vietnam War. He passed his seasoning, smoking meats and homemade BBQ sauce-making skills to his son Craig Jones and nephew Nichalas Breland, who make ribs, brisket, chicken, and homemade beef links.
“My dad, when he was transitioning, his last few words to me were, ‘Protect and keep what we have,’ and that’s what I’m trying do,” said Craig Jones in an interview with NBC Bay Area.
In a Youtube video, (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sh8sN1KEELk), family members tell how they lost their ‘legacy.’

According to news reports, Wolff is chairman & CEO of Wolff Urban Development, LLC, a real estate acquisition, investment, development, and management firm. Since 1994, Wolff has served as chairman of Maritz, Wolff & Co., a privately held hotel investment group that owns and manages assets for top-tier luxury hotels, with over $1.0 billion of assets under management.

Since 1968, Wolff has developed over 4,000,000 square feet of urban real estate, including hotels, office space, retail, town homes, and commercial parking properties.
By the Oakland Post’s deadline, the newspaper had not received a reply for a request for a comment from Wolff or Marriott.

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Bay Area

Community Survey Launched for Future of Hilltop Mall Area

Community members are being asked to fill out a brief online survey about what they believe should be developed at a 145-acre site in Richmond that includes the 78-acre Hilltop Mall property.

Published

4 years ago

March 14, 2023

Oakland Post

Plans by a previous development company for Hilltop Mall were scrapped because of the pandemic. Photo courtesy of the Richmond Standard.

Richmond Standard

Community members are being asked to fill out a brief online survey about what they believe should be developed at a 145-acre site in Richmond that includes the 78-acre Hilltop Mall property.

The City of Richmond’s Planning Division recently launched the community survey for the so-called “Hilltop Horizon Specific Plan.” To take the community survey, go to https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/FX3DCND. The survey will close on March 15 at noon.

The project area includes the shopping mall, along with areas immediately south and east of the mall.

The city said the mission of the project is to transform the area from “a low-intensity, auto-oriented retail center to a higher intensity, mixed-use destination.”

The survey asks residents to select from a list of options that include housing, maximizing vertical space for developments, promoting land uses that stimulate the local economy, creating entertainment opportunities and enhancing mobility connections, among others.

A raffle with prizes will be held for everyone participating in the survey.

In April 2021, Prologis purchased the Hilltop Mall property for $117 million from LBG Real Estate Cos.

LBG Real Estate Cos. had acquired the site in 2017 with plans to modernize the shopping center and construct housing, office space and a hotel, among other amenities, but the company abandoned the redevelopment plans during the pandemic.