This Pierce County apartment complex was a crime hot spot. Can new owner bring change?
Sherwood Park Apartments in Fife became a source of violent crime, gang activity and vagrancy a couple years ago when city officials said on-site management left tenants without support.
Now, after what the city manager categorizes as “one of the most hands-on code enforcement/policing efforts for a small neighborhood that the city has ever been up against,” there’s a new owner who plans to part ways with current tenants, complete renovations and make it safer.
The complex, now renamed Ramallah Apartments, is located at 2360 62nd Ave. E.
Management failures fostered crime, violence
Surrounding a U-shaped drive are 18 two-story apartment buildings, some with visible fire damage, boarded windows and broken glass.
Unlike most apartment complexes that have a single owner, Fife city manager Derek Matheson said Sherwood Apartments had a complicated ownership structure where one LLC consisting of four LLCs owned 13 buildings, another LLC made up of three LLCs owned five other buildings, and there was common ownership of a clubhouse.
Conditions at the complex started deteriorating in 2021 and continued into 2022 when the company managing the property quit and then the owner of the majority shareholder died, Matheson said. That meant for years there was nobody on the property collecting rent, performing ordinary maintenance, troubleshooting crime and code issues, and it was “not clear where a tenant would go with needs,” he said.
By early 2023, “there weren’t many, if any, paying tenants,” squatters were moving in and out of various apartments and utility providers had turned off water and electric service for non-payment in some of the buildings, Matheson said.
An uptick in crime at the property caught the city’s attention last spring.
In July 2023, the site was deemed a “Chronic Nuisance Property,” according to Police Chief Pete Fisher. Between January 2022 and June 2023 there were 130 chronic nuisance activities at the apartment complex reported to the police department, including shots fired, aggravated assaults, stolen property, the sexual assault of a minor, domestic violence, drug overdoses, drug use, stolen vehicles, brandishing of weapons, verbal disturbances, animal bites, intimidation with guns, bats and an axe, harassment and no-contact order violations, according to a letter Fisher sent to Dermanis 2011 Real Estate Holdings LLC on July 10, 2023, that was shared with The News Tribune.
“I’m frankly surprised that it took as long as it did for the central situation to deteriorate to the point that the city had to become involved actively,” Matheson said.
Departments within the city of Fife started meeting weekly in the summer of 2023 to address those issues with Ohana Fiduciary Corp., which represented the four LLCs that owned 13 buildings there, Matheson said. Meetings went on for six to nine months, he said.
Last year the Ohana Fiduciary Corp. worked with police to board up units and the property started seeing significant improvements when the corporation paid Fife police officers to do overnight security after private security wasn’t effective, Matheson said. Police officers were stationed there most nights between October and December 2023, he said.
A representative with the Ohana Fiduciary Corp. told The News Tribune on Friday it was one of the hardest cases the trust company has dealt with, but the city of Fife has been very supportive, and the new owner is the right person to turn the property around.
“There’s still some tenants there who are frustrated with the situation, but I don’t want to understate how significantly we turned things around between spring of last year and spring of this year. It was a violent, scary place, and like the chief said, [Tacoma Public Utilities] wouldn’t even go in there to service a meter without a police escort because of fears of gangs, drugs and shootings. And that’s just not the case anymore,” Matheson said. “It’s probably less crime issues and just more landlord-tenant issues at this point.”
New owner takes over
There have been several prospective buyers for the property. New owner Ahmad Rabi told The News Tribune Friday he signed a $7 million loan package to purchase 13 units at the end of March.
As for the other five units on site, two are currently owned by Deutsche Bank Trust Company and the other three units are owned in part by Bighorn Ventures Group, LLC, Fife 52, LCC and PH-Sherwood Park LLC, according to the city. Matheson said Rabi has expressed interest in buying the other five units. Rabi told The News Tribune on Thursday he had no comment about that.
Dermanis 2011 Real Estate Holdings LLC, Fife 52 LLC and PH-Sherwood Park LLC originally bought 13 units for $9.5 million on June 16, 2021, according to county records.
Rabi said he is working to part ways with the current tenants, renovate the buildings, install fencing, lighting and security and sign leases with new tenants. He said he’s also working with Tacoma Public Utilities to restore utilities to the complex.
There is a leasing manager on site, and tenants have a way to submit feedback and requests for maintenance, he said.
A tenant who spoke to The News Tribune on the condition of anonymity said in the two and a half years he’s lived at the complex, conditions today are significantly better than they once were.
Like many of his neighbors, the man said he hasn’t paid his portion of $1,525 monthly rent for a one-bedroom apartment since last June due to the violence and mismanagement. Although he is looking for another place to live, he said he’d like to leave on good terms with the new owner, which is why he said he wanted to remain anonymous.
A lot of the people causing trouble last year have been arrested or moved on, and consistent police presence helped, he said.
“When I first came here, it looked OK. I was comfortable. I was happy,” he said.
After the property manager left, things started getting bad, he said. There was trash everywhere, stolen cars parked on the property, many vacant apartments and shootings. People were breaking into units and burning cabinets inside, he said.
“There was always something to look out for … and I had to be on double [alert]. I actually stopped working, just to be more on alert. There was too much going on, there was too much,” he said. “These guys want me to pay back [rent], but the leasing office got robbed, so all of our information got compromised. So why do you want us to pay? Do you know what I mean? We couldn’t even get a work order, this place became more of a headache than anything.”
In August there was a break-in at the leasing office. Management advised at that time rent checks and keys to apartments were taken, said Koleen Woolcott, a records officer with the Fife Police Department.
This story was originally published June 3, 2024 at 5:15 AM.
