The City of Syracuse has filed a lawsuit against the owners of Nob Hill Apartments because the complex has been cited dozens of times in the past year for providing unsafe living conditions for tenants.
Mayor Ben Walsh said at a Thursday press conference the city wants the ownership group, a Texas-based LLC named Nob Hill Apartment Group LLC, to address a slew of code violations at the four-building complex on Lafayette Road.
These include failing water heaters, malfunctioning elevators, and the lack of proper smoke and fire alarms. The city is also seeking to collect $100 per day from the out-of-town company or each day these violations have gone uncorrected, which Walsh said amount to $340,000.
“This is a complex that for many years was a very desirable place to live, and unfortunately, under current ownership, has fallen into disrepair,” Walsh said at the presser Thursday.
The lawsuit, initially filed April 16, is the second major legal action taken by the city this year in an attempt to rein in landlords who have neglected their properties into disrepair.
Earlier this month, the city sued Clear Investment Group, the Chicago-based owners of Skyline Apartments. Skyline and several other properties owned by Clear were previously owned by Tim Green, Green’s son Troy and their company Green National. Tim Green is a former Syracuse University football player.
In that lawsuit, the city sought to appoint a third-party manager to fix issues at Skyline and collect more than $2 million in fines to reinvest into the building. The next hearing on that case will take place May 6 at the Onondaga County Courthouse.
“Our record is clear. We are not going to tolerate slumlords in our town,” Walsh said. “We are not going to tolerate these owners treating their tenants with disrespect. Those are our constituents, and they all deserve a safe, affordable place to live.”
Walsh said he hopes Nob Hill ownership, a group that according to county property tax records bought the buildings for around $57.5 million in 2018, can get back on track by correcting code violations.
There are 67 open code violations, according to the city’s open data portal. The violations include improper fire safety fixtures, ill-fitting doors and windows, unsanitary conditions and heat supply that is not up to standard.
Portions of the complex have been designated by the city as unfit for human habitation twice in the past year.
City officials wrote in the legal filing that areas like the building’s elevators have raised significant concerns from residents and code enforcement since at least last year.
A codes inspector cited the building last April for not having proper certification for the two elevators in each building. The elevators were also not working properly, inspectors wrote in their report. The city alleges that the elevators continue to work only intermittently and remain without the proper certification.
By the end of that month, management employees told city officials that the elevators were working properly. Nob Hill is managed by Texas-based Mayfair Management Group, according to the city’s lawsuit.
The elevators failed subsequent city inspections, court records show.
City officials received two calls from tenants and one from the concerned sibling of another regarding the state of the elevators by the end of 2024. In August, a tenant had to be rescued by the Syracuse Fire Department after getting stuck in one of the elevators, according to the city’s complaint.
Management employees, according to the suit, told the city at least four times throughout 2024 and the start of 2025 that they had either been in contact with a vendor who could repair the elevators or that the elevators had been almost fixed.
Walsh said the story of Nob Hill is reminiscent of how Skyline fell into squalid conditions. The mayor added the city is not asking for a receiver to be installed yet but that the city could escalate to that point if non-compliance with the property code continues.
“We’re seeing all of the warning signs that we saw at Skyline and we’ve seen at other properties, so we’re being more proactive and getting them into court and hopefully resolving it before it gets worse,” Walsh said. “Obviously, if it does get worse, we’re gonna have to take it to another level. But at this point, we’re hoping that we have their attention and we get them to step up and do the right thing.”
The next hearing for this case will take place June 4 at the county courthouse.
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