Menu
Don't Let This Happen to You!
Equity Tenant Survey
Take
the Survey HERE!
We are reaching out to all tenants of Equity owned and managed buildings
to learn about their concerns with Equity Residential.
New: Survey
Results
Equity Residential Watch and www.EquityResidentialWatch.info
are produced by Metallic Lathers and Reinforcing Ironworkers Local 46
and are wholly independent of Equity Residential.
Welcome to Equity Residential Watch
Did you know...?
-- On July 16th, 2010, a three story
parking garage collapsed at an Equity-owned
building in N.J., leaving more than 300 residents unable to return home.
Two months earlier, Equity was warned by a licensed engineer that the
building’s parking garage might “catastrophically collapse.”
READ
THE FULL REPORT HERE
Equity apparently ignored these warnings, putting the safety of its
tenants, employees and the general public at risk (see
the video here).
-- Equity Residential is currently being
sued by the Equal Rights Center for engaging in the systematic discrimination
of persons with disabilities due to the construction of residential
facilities that are alleged to violate the Fair Housing Act. In September
2005, EQR settled a similar lawsuit which alleged that the company discriminated
against persons with disabilities at military housing in Washington
State.
-- In 2005, Equity Residential was forced to settle
with the Maryland Attorney General's Office for more than a quarter
of a million dollars in response to allegations that the company charged
exorbitant application fees and illegally deducted termination fees
from tenants' security deposits.
-- In 2002, residents of Equity Residential
buildings in Florida filed a class action lawsuit alleging the company
illegally charged tenants thousands of dollars in termination fees.
As a result, Equity was forced to discontinue these practices and pay
out $1.6 million to tenants.
Equity Residential Watch is a forum for tenants and the general public to learn more about Equity’s track record, voice concerns about the company’s activities, and get information on defending their rights.
This
Just In... Equity Residential Tenant Survey
Results
Click here
to view preliminary results of our ongoing survey.
To see what people are saying about their experiences
at Equity Residential properties, please click on the links below:
Ripoff
Report
Complaint
Board
Equity
Residential: Latest
News...
November 16, 2011 -- The Wall Street Journal
Zell Firm Leads Bids for Archstone
Equity Residential, the apartment company headed by real-estate mogul Sam Zell, has emerged as the lead bidder in the contest to buy roughly half of rival Archstone in what would be one of the largest real-estate transactions since the downturn, according to people familiar with the situation. Read more--->
November 5, 2011 -- Barron's
No Jacket Required
If there's one thing that Chicago real-estate mogul Sam Zell isn't, it's corporate. Through his long business career that dates back to the late 1960s, he has eschewed business suits or even jackets and ties for, back-in-the-day, jump suits with gold chains and, more recently, open-neck tailored shirts, pressed jeans and a baseball cap covering his now-bald pate. The 70-year-old rides a Ducati motorcycle from his Streeterville condo to work each weekday. Read more--->
October 12, 2011 -- Catholic San Francisco
East
Palo Alto Mayor, Pastor Oppose Sale of Low-Income Housing
Wells
Fargo Bank plans to sell half of East Palo Alto’s low-income housing
to a real estate company whose founder is a billionaire opponent of
rent control – and whose representatives reportedly told the city’s
mayor it plans to gentrify in one to five years.
The city of East Palo Alto’s mayor and City Council,
tenants and affordable housing groups and the pastor of the city’s Catholic
church all oppose the sale to Equity Residential. In
addition San Francisco Auxiliary Bishop William J. Justice and Rep.
Anna Eshoo, D-Palo Alto, have written letters to Wells Fargo urging
the bank to take steps to ensure the town does not lose affordable housing.
Read
more--->
September
30, 2011 -- Palo Alto Online
Congresswoman
Eshoo 'Very Concerned' About Wells Fargo's Apartment Sale
As
Wells Fargo Bank prepares to sell about 1,800 housing units in East
Palo Alto to a real-estate trust, U.S. Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Palo Alto,
has joined city officials in calling for the bank to make sure the sale
doesn't spell the end of affordable housing in the Woodland Park neighborhood.
The bank, which acquired the properties last year in
foreclosure, plans to sell the portfolio to Equity Residential,
a national company headed by real-estate magnate Sam Zell. East Palo
Alto officials and tenant activists have been adamantly opposing the
sale, arguing that allowing one buyer to acquire the entire portfolio
would leave the area vulnerable to redevelopment and would threaten
the city's affordable-housing stock. Read
more--->
September 27,
2011 -- Wall Street Journal
Equity
Residential Grants CEO Award Valued At $6.5 Million
Apartment giant Equity Residential (EQR) awarded Chief
Executive David Neithercut a long-term compensation grant and retention
award valued at $6.5 million, according to a securities filing.
Read
more--->
September 22, 2011 -- San Francisco Business Times
East
Palo Alto Asks Wells Fargo to Rethink Apartment Sale
The East Palo Alto City Council
is pushing Wells Fargo & Co. to consider scrubbing plans to sell
1,800 apartments there to Chicago-based Equity Residential Group,
the Palo Alto Daily News reports.
The planned sale has raised alarm among tenants and others over how
Equity Residential Group might operate the units. Read
more--->
September 21 -- San Jose Mercury News
East
Palo Alto Asks Wells Fargo to Rethink Selling 1800 Apartments to Equity
Residential
The East Palo Alto City Council will dash off a letter asking
Wells Fargo to consider scrubbing a deal to sell 1,800 apartment units
to a company that some tenants fear could be as bad as a previous, despised
landlord.
Wells
Fargo took over the apartments after the previous owner, Palo Alto-based
Page Mill Properties, foreclosed on a loan of about $250 million in
March 2010. The bank is in the process of selling the apartments to
Chicago-based Equity Residential Group, one of the
country's largest landlords. Read
more--->
September 21, 2011
-- Palo Alto Online
East
Palo Alto Seeks to Halt Apartment Sale
Still reeling from the recent financial implosion of the
city's largest landlord, East Palo Alto city officials, tenants and
community activists are calling on Wells Fargo to halt its pending sale
of 1,800 housing units to a single buyer -- a sale that they believe
could lead to displacement of thousands of low-income residents.
The
East Palo Alto City Council voted Tuesday night (Sept. 20) to send the
bank a letter urging it to reconsider its sale of the 1,800 units formerly
owned by Page Mill Properties to one company. Wells Fargo, which took
over the properties in foreclosure after Page Mill defaulted on a loan
a year ago, plans to sell the properties in the Woodland Park neighborhood
to Equity Residential, a firm with about 126,000 units
nationwide in its portfolio. Read
more--->
September 19, 2011 -- The New Bottom LineReal Deal
2,700 Families May Lose Homes in Wells Fargo
Last week, Peninsula Interfaith Action, an affiliate of People Improving Communities through Organizing and The New Bottom Line, held a Town Hall meeting in East Palo Alto, to speak out against Wells Fargo selling 1800 rental apartment units to "vulture" mogul and developer Sam Zell.
Sam Zell is the owner of Equity Residential, a real estate giant, offered this gem in 2008:
"This country needs a cleansing, we need to clean out all those people who never should have bought in the first place, and not give them sympathy." Read more--->
August
23, 2011 -- Palo Alto Online
Video:
East
Palo Alto Residents Protest Sale of Apartments
As Wells Fargo prepares to unload its huge apartment portfolio
in East Palo Alto, city residents, officials and tenant activists are
gearing up for another battle to preserve rent control in the city's
Woodland Park neighborhood.
Dozens
of critics of the proposed sale marched from East Palo Alto to Wells
Fargo's branch in downtown Palo Alto Monday afternoon (Aug. 22) in protest
of the bank's selection of Equity Residential as a
finalist in the sale of about 1,800 units -- about 70 percent of the
city's total stock of affordable housing. The apartment portfolio was
previously owned by Page Mill Properties, a Palo Alto-based firm that
lost control of the units after it defaulted on a $50 million loan to
Well Fargo in August 2009. Read
more--->
August 22, 2011 -- Palo Alto Online
EPA
Tenants Rally Against Proposed Apartment Sale
Wells Fargo has identified Equity Residential
as finalist in sale of former Page Mill Properties apartments
East Palo Alto residents and tenant advocates will take it to the streets
this afternoon to protest Wells Fargo Bank's potential sale of about
1,800 units in the Woodland Park neighborhood to the investment fund
Equity Residential.
Wells
Fargo officials have confirmed in an email that Equity
has been selected as a finalist in the sale of the apartments, which
were previously owned by Palo Alto-based Page Mill Properties. Page
Mill had antagonized tenants and East Palo Alto officials by steeply
raising rents and filing at least a dozen lawsuits against the city,
most of them challenging the city's rent-control laws. Read
more--->
August 20, 2011 -- Mercury News
East
Palo Alto Tenants Fear They May Get New Landlord Worse Than Page Mill
Tenants who thought they had it bad under former landlord Page
Mill Properties are worried that things may get worse if their East
Palo Alto apartments are sold to a Chicago-based company whose controversial
chairman is an outspoken foe of rent control.
In
an effort to prevent that, a group of tenants and housing activists
plans to rally Monday against Wells Fargo Bank, which is poised to sell
the 1,800 apartments to Equity Residential Group, one
of the country's largest landlords. Read
more--->
August 14, 2011 -- Boston Herald
Building
Plans Bring Shadow of a Doubt
Neighbors are battling a towering proposal to build 500 apartments
in the West End that will displace a roof-top indoor basketball court
that serves Hub youth and could cast a shadow on a city park and hundreds
of residents.
“Yes, we live in the city and there are tall buildings, but that doesn’t
mean our quality of life in the neighborhood should be taken away from
us,” said Theresa Raso, 74, who owns a condo in Whittier Place, where
residents believe they will be left in the shadows if two high-rise
towers are built next door.
Equity Residential wants to tear down the five-story
parking garage near the TD Garden on Lomasney Way to build a 21-story
tower and a 28-story tower with 500 apartments and underground parking
for 850 cars.
Read More--->
July 29, 2011 -- NorthJersey.com
Hackensack:
More Transparency Needed on Why Garage Collapsed
Residents of Hackensack and Prospect Towers deserve more transparency
as they try to move on from last year's parking garage collapse at the
18-story luxury building on Prospect Avenue.
Thankfully no one was trapped in the rubble that day last July, but we all know the incident could have been much worse had anyone been caught in the collapse.
More than 300 residents were displaced from their homes. Many have moved back in, but they still haven't received any word from ownership on what exactly happened.
Tenants
say they asked the ownership, Equity Residential, and
were told the cause was "privileged information." Reporters
from The Chronicle and The Record also reached out to Equity Residential
for comment without success.
July 27, 2011 -- Curbed.com
Equity
Residential Faces Suit For Violating Fair Housing Act
A Federal judge has just ruled
that Equity Residential, the largest multi-family housing developer
in the country, can, in fact, be sued by the D.C.-based nonprofit The
Equal Rights Center for violating a bunch of Fair Housing Act and American
With Disabilities Act statutes.
July 16, 2011 -- MyFoxNY
Video: One
Year Anniversary Of Garage Collapse In N.J.
Members of Metallic Lathers Union Local 46
met with residents of Prospect Towers who a year ago were displaced
from their building when the three story garage collapsed.
The local union members met with tenants to discuss their ongoing hardships and how they could offer their help.
According to the Bergen Record, Prospect Towers, located on 300 Prospect Avenue in Hackensack, says that a third of the building's units remained vacant due to the collapse.
Equity Residential, the owner of the residential property, had initially announced that residents would be able to return by November of 2010.
According to a May 2010 report, a licensed engineer had warned Equity Residential that the garage might collapse.
The
tenants of Prospect Towers have a filed a lawsuit against Equity Residential
as a result of that warning that went ignored. The case is still pending.
July 16, 2011 --
WPIX
Video: One
Year Later: NJ Garage Collapse
It was one year ago today when the garage at a Hackensack
apartment building collapsed forcing 300 residents from their homes.
On the morning of July 16, 2010, a 20-foot long steel and plexi-glass canopy near the entrance fell and two floors of the garage caved in.
While no one was injured in the collapse, hundreds were rushed from the building with only the clothes on their backs. Members of the Metallic Lathers Union Local 46 gathered at Prospect Towers today to meet with tenants and discuss their future.
"As construction workers, we understand the trauma caused by building accidents. On the one-year anniversary of the collapse we want to check in with the residents and see what kind of help we can offer them," said Robert Ledwith, business manager of the Local 46.
Several
tenants have filed a lawsuit against the building's owner, Equity Management.
Those residents claim that in May 2010, a licensed engineer warned the
owner that the garage might "catastrophically collapse."
July 16, 2011 -- NorthJersey.com
Tenants
of Hackensack High-rise Still Question What Caused Parking Garage Collapse
Tenants of the Prospect Towers apartments say they still
do not know what caused the building’s underground parking garage to
cave in a year ago, despite inquiries with the building’s management.
A handful of Prospect Towers’ residents gathered outside the 18-story complex on Saturday — the one-year anniversary of the collapse — to relay their concerns to the Metallic Lathers Union Local 46 of New York City.
The union has appointed itself a watchdog of Equity Residential, which owns and manages Prospect Towers.
“The residents know we’re here, and they will come out and tell us what problems they’re having,” said Robert Ledwith, the union’s Business Manager.
But the five residents who met with union officials said their only complaint is that Equity Residential still has not provided tenants with an explanation of what caused the parking garage collapse, which also felled a 20-foot-long steel and plexiglass canopy near the entrance of the building.
“I tried getting an answer from Equity and was told the cause was ‘privileged information,’” explained Al Zayat, an 11-year Prospect Towers resident. “That sounds like lawyer-speak for, ‘It’s none of your business.’”
Residents have faulted a water leak in the garage as the cause.
More than 300 people were displaced by the collapse, which interrupted gas, water and electrical service to the building. At least 50 units in the high-rise remain unoccupied.
Equity Residential provided rooms for tenants at nearby hotels, and later provided temporary housing for those who wanted to continue living in the building once repairs were complete. Equity also paid moving expenses for the tenants who did not want to return to the building.
“Why didn’t the engineer report the cause of the collapse to the city or the press,” resident Dick Lowenthal asked union reps. “Equity has not said anything about it.”
Another resident, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said she still has not been able to move back into her apartment.
“This is very inconvenient,” she said. “Equity has never said, ‘Sorry.’ There has been no explanation of what happened, what caused it. Tell me what happened and how much all of this is going to raise my rent. Why weren’t we told of the dangers? We want to know why it happened and if we are safe.”
Equity Residential is one of the country’s largest publicly traded apartment building owners. It owns and manages more than 400 properties in 16 states and the District of Columbia, including one in West New York, four in Jersey City and several in Manhattan.
Equity did not respond to a call Saturday for comment.
Ledwith,
the union Business Manager, said that Local 46 recently
protested outside of a construction site owned by Equity Residential,
because the company was using non-union workers.
July 15, 2011 -- NorthJersey.com
Hackensack
Parking Garage That Fell Still Not Ready One Year Later
The one-year anniversary of the collapse of an underground parking garage
on Prospect Avenue is approaching this weekend, but repair work continues.
City engineers from Boswell Engineering have signed off on the structure of the three level parking deck at Prospect Towers, but a certificate of occupancy still needs to be issued for the upper floors of the garage, City Manager Stephen Lo Iacono said Thursday. Sprinklers are among the items that still need to be reviewed and approved, he said.
"They are not far away, but they are still not there," Lo Iacono said, noting the work is about a couple of weeks away from completion.
Marty McKenna, spokesman for Equity Residential, the owners of the 18-story luxury building, did not immediately return a call Thursday, but in May he said 100 units in the building had been reoccupied, with 57 still remaining empty. Lo Iacono said since then more tenants have moved in, but did not have an exact figure.
More than 300 residents could not return to their rental units when a 20-foot-long steel and plexiglass canopy near the entrance of the building fell and two floors of the garage caved in on July 16, 2010.
After searching several hours, emergency workers from across the state determined no one was trapped in the debris. A second section of the garage collapsed the next day, disrupting gas, water and electric lines.
At first, Equity Residential provided rooms for tenants at nearby hotels, but later provided temporary housing for those who wanted to move back into the building once repairs were complete. Equity also paid moving expenses for the tenants who did not want to return to the building.
Residents have faulted a water leak in the garage as the cause.
Since then, at least one tenant from an adjoining mid-rise building owned by Equity Residential filed a lawsuit against the company. In their suit, Barrington and CanDice Hibbert, claim the company knew of problems in the garage, and ignored their own engineer's recommendations. Instead, the suit claims, Equity opted for a stop-gap measure to shore up the "sagging structure and cracks on two foundation columns" on the second level.
The company installed two steel beams supported by temporary steel columns back in 2005, the suit says.
Two engineering reports, written months before the collapse, also note problems with water leakage. One report by Rudy Vazquez of Flex Engineering in Union City found that water was penetrating a concrete slab in the parking garage and the engineer noted that the problem could cause a collapse. [READ THE FULL REPORT HERE]
The cause of the collapse has not been disclosed. In May, McKenna said he didn't know whether an engineering report on the cause had been completed, but said if there was a report it would not be released.
On Saturday, members of Metallic Lathers Union Local 46 of New York City will hold a meeting with tenants of Prospect Towers.
The ironworkers union has been an open critic of Equity Residential, which owns buildings across the country. Union members have set up a website listing the company's alleged "record of poor conduct, tenant abuses and building safety issues."
"We
want to meet the folks who live there, and offer them assistance, and
see if they need attorneys," said Robert Ledwith, the union's business
manager. "They might need some advice on different things."
July 15, 2011
Press Release: One
Year Anniversary of Equity Residential's Shocking Garage Collapse
Construction Workers Will Meet with Residents to Discuss Ongoing
Impact of Garage Collapse
May 17, 2011 -- The Berkeley Daily Planet
Zoning
Board Discusses, Critiques, Acheson Commons
The Acheson Commons housing development proposed for Downtown
Berkeley forged ahead into the second of three “preview” meetings before
City review bodies, ran into at least temporarily unsettled weather
at Berkeley’s Zoning Adjustment Board at its meeting on May 12, 2011.
While the ZAB was cautiously favorable towards the general development, members raised firm objections to a number of aspects of the project and predicted it would not win their approval without modifications.
Concerns included the lack of affordable housing integrated into the development, the overall density and character of the apartment units, and the prospect that union labor might not be used in construction.
Equity
Residential -- a company with some 500 properties nationwide,
which owns and operates several apartment and mixed use buildings in
Downtown Berkeley -- is proposing the 203 unit project along the entire
length of the north side of the 2100 block of University Avenue, between
Shattuck and Walnut, and wrapping around the corner to Berkeley Way.
April 28, 2011 -- Reuters
Two
Big US Apartment Owners Raise the Rent
March 30, 2011 --
The Berkeley Daily Planet
New
Union Allegations Against Equity Residential Funder of Berkeley Measure
R Campaign
Cartoon of Equity Residential Chairman Sam Zell posted on BerkeleyDailyPlanet.com.
February 3, 2011 -- Miller Tabak & Co., LLC
"EQR has been tenacious in executing a strategy of weaker-market
properties at low valuations in order to reinvest in stronger-market
properties at higher valuations. At first, this may appear to be a "buy
high, sell low" strategy, but in fact the "great equalizer"
in EQR's property-mix acquisitions/dispositions strategy is the ability
to raise rents more aggressively in the stronger markets." --
Thomas Mitchell, Miller Tabak & Co., LLC
January 16, 2011 -- Associated Press
Thieves
Target Homes of Residents Displaced by Hackensack Garage Collapse
January 15, 2011 -- The Record
Displaced,
Then Victimized
December 14, 2010 -- Reuters
Zell Speaks on Real Estate
While Union Protests
.JPG)
November 26, 2010 -- NJ.com
Construction
Delays Return for Residents of Hackensack Apartments
November 26, 2010 -- NorthJersey.com
Hackensack
Tenants Could be Back in Apartments in mid-December
November 4, 2010 -- The New York Observer
Sam
Zell? 'He's a Rat!' Union Yells Outside NYPL
November 1, 2010 -- Reuters
Sam
Zell Sued For Allegedly Defrauding Investors in Disastrous Tribune Buyout
September 13, 2010 -- LA Times
Tribune
Unsecured Creditors Seek Right to Sue Zell
August 16, 2010 -- Wall Street Journal
Sam
Zell Seeks Bigger Slice of Manhattan
August 9, 2010 -- NJ.com
Hackensack
Officials Didn't See Engineer's Report Until After Garage Collapse
August 9, 2010 -- NJ.com
Engineer
Predicted Collapse of Parking Garage in Hackensack; Warning Went Unheeded
July 17, 2010 -- Wall Street Journal
No
One Found Trapped in Parking Garage Rubble