Judge strips control of downtown St. Louis building from Lux Living owners

ST. LOUIS — A St. Louis judge has appointed a receiver to manage the troubled Ely Walker building downtown, a victory for residents who have complained for years about lax security and deferred maintenance in the 174-unit building controlled by controversial landlords Vic Alston and Sid Chakraverty.

An Alston company owns the majority of Ely Walker condo units, giving him the votes to fill the condo board with employees of his companies. Several independent condo owners sued the Alston-controlled board in 2016 and again in 2021, litigation that is still ongoing. On Nov. 21, the condo owners filed a motion in one of their lawsuits to appoint a receiver for the building.

“The plaintiffs are gratified that the court has appointed a receiver that can hopefully restore some semblance of order,” their attorney, Elkin Kistner, said Wednesday.

A high-profile shooting in the building last year drew the attention of the city, which threatened to designate the building a “public nuisance” and place the building into receivership unless security improved.

Yet, despite a deal to ramp up security City Hall reached with the owners, problems have persisted, residents say. The Tuesday order from Circuit Court Judge Michael Stelzer appointed St. Peters-based A. Jennings Properties as the building’s manager, stripping the Ely Walker Lofts Condominium Association — the condo board that manages that building — of the role.

“It makes me question what the city has been doing this whole time,” condo owner Grace Malnar said. “The city gave these people three, four, five chances. It’s heartening to hear that a judge heard our case and within two weeks assigned receivership because it was so blatantly obvious they were failing to manage this building.”

In his order, Stelzer gave A. Jennings Properties the power to prepare an annual budget for the building, collect condo dues from owners, determine the cost of needed repairs and dig into the association’s financial records, which condo owners complain have not been shared by the board.

“The court is convinced a wide scope and variety of seriously pernicious problems is plaguing the Ely Walker Lofts…,” Stelzer wrote. “The injuries and harm that the defendant association’s board of directors and management have inflicted and continue to inflict on the unit owners, visitors to and passersby who are in the vicinity of the property weighs heavily in favor of this court’s appointing a general receiver with respect to the condominium association and the property.”

Stelzer’s order is the latest setback for Alston and Chakraverty, who only a few years ago had rocketed to become one of the city’s most prolific residential developers and a major St. Louis-area landlord.

But residents in both their old and new buildings persistently complain that their companies — Asprient Properties, STL Citywide and Lux Living — ignore routine maintenance and standard security procedures.

In response, local officials have blocked portions of their plans for new apartments and held up tax incentives. More recently, the Missouri Real Estate Commission asked a court to bar STL CityWide from leasing units until it obtains a broker’s license from the state agency. The city passed a new short-term rental ordinance that could limit their frequent use of short-term rentals in their buildings — which are advertised via a company registered to Chakraverty, TheStay.

Their practices have even attracted scrutiny from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, which in August subpoenaed city records related to one of the brother’s buildings in DeBaliviere Place.

At Ely Walker, one of several downtown condo buildings controlled by Chakraverty and Alston, residents have questioned why the board isn’t paying some vendors despite purportedly collecting about $500,000 a year in condo fees. They also point out their fees haven’t been raised in nearly 10 years, questioning how the board can continue to maintain the building amid high inflation.

“We’re confident that we can now have a full accounting of the building budget and a neutral receiver will be able to make the necessary improvements to bring the building back to the beautiful shape that it was in when it first opened,” said Kristin Denbow, one of the plaintiffs and a condo owner and resident there since its 2007 rehab into lofts.

Attorneys for the condo board and Alston and Chakraverty did not respond to a request for comment.