CINCINNATI — A New Jersey-based landlord says its West Side apartment complex is the victim of illegal trash dumpers. But some of its tenants say the problems run deeper at Eatondale Apartments in Sedamsville.

The 68-unit apartment complex at 269 Fairbanks Ave. was the scene of a half-day cleanup Friday, as residents and property managers filled three dumpsters with garbage they say was brought to the complex by strangers. Property Manager Marnica Ward said it’s a recurring problem that requires her to call Junk King for extra dumpsters every three days.

“I can’t catch who’s doing it,” Ward said. “I don’t know who’s doing it.”

But one tenant said the trash pile sat there for more than two weeks before she complained about it on Nextdoor, a social media app that lets neighbors alert each other about local events and problems.

“Enough is enough,” said Grecia Moore. “I’m sick and tired of being in unlivable conditions.”

Beyond the trash, Moore said, she has endured leaks, mold, a lack of heat and rodents in her basement apartment.

“Who wants to live like this? I can’t even stay here now because of the mold and mildew that’s in my house,” Moore said.

The Eatondale complex has a troubled history, with six different owners since 2008, all but two of them out-of-town investors. In 2014, the city of Cincinnati declared the property a chronic nuisance. In 2016, Cornerstone Redevelopment bought it with the goal of converting the property to housing for seniors.

Cornerstone’s former owner, Charles Tassell, said he sold the property to Newark-based Radiant Property Management in August 2020 because he thought the company would be good stewards of the complex.

“The company we sold to was well-established, well-reflected with HUD, had the breadth and depth to kind of take it to that next level,” Tassell said. “So, it was a good fit for them and a good fit for us and we kind of stepped away at that point.”

Eatondale is one of 21 properties with 2,547 apartment units owned or managed by Radiant in five states, according to records from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Radiant also owns the King Tower apartment complex in Madisonville, according to Hamilton County property records.

The company has invested “well over $300,000” at Eatondale in the last 16 months, said Jonathan Unger, regional manager for Radiant, who provided receipts documenting more than $180,000 of that spending.

The improvements included “new common areas, plumbing work throughout, new flooring, new exteriors, new access control system, new security cameras and lighting (and) repaving of the entire property,” Unger wrote in an email to the WCPO 9 I-Team. “Additionally, we took a pre-emptive approach and went door-to-door to tenants’ apartments, asking if they had any maintenance needs.”

On Aug. 3, the building scored 95 out of a possible 100 from HUD’s Real Estate Assessment Center, which inspects subsidized housing. While the HUD inspection uncovered only minor deficiencies, city inspectors documented more serious problems eight days later.

“No progress with any repair,” wrote city inspector Matthew Flannery on Aug. 11. “The tenant/complainant (told Flannery) water is still getting on the floor of the common hallway when it rains and the mice infestation has gotten worse.”

On Oct. 20, Flannery documented the building’s failure to patch a “squirrel hole” that was first cited in February and was suspected of letting rodents and insects into the building.

Moore said her basement unit leaks when it rains and has no heat. She provided cell phone video showing puddles around her kitchen table and a dead mouse behind her couch.

“I hear so many people complaining,” Moore said. “We don’t have any heat. We don’t have no hot water. And I get so frustrated.”

Ward said there was a brief outage of heat and hot water in the last month, but those problems were quickly resolved. She also said all problems cited by city inspectors have been fixed and are awaiting a follow-up inspection to confirm those repairs.

“We do great work here,” Ward said. “Everything that’s supposed to be done is getting done.”

The Florence Mall has changed ownership after Brookfield Properties resolved a $90 million loan default by handing the property over to its lenders.

It’s the second local mall to default on its debt in the wake of a pandemic that accelerated store closures and kept shoppers from venturing outdoors. And it signals a rapid decline for what had been considered one of the region’s strongest malls, with an occupancy rate of 87.9% as recently as last March, according to Brookfield's most recent annual report.

Brookfield did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment. Florence Mall general manager Jerry McClurg will continue to run the property under a management agreement with the commercial real estate firm JLL.

"We do not expect any operational interruptions to the mall," McClurg said. "JLL is the largest third-party manager of malls and shopping centers across the country. Our firm has relationships with national, regional and local retailers, which enables us to find the right tenant mix for the mall. We’re excited for the future here.”

Florence Mayor Diane Whalen said she was encouraged by the retention of the mall’s existing management team by lenders. She thinks the property can recover.

“It’s a very visible piece of real estate,” Whalen said. “It has nearly 200,000 cars a day that pass it where 75 and 71 are combined. And it’s not going to be this giant empty shell. I think the redevelopment opportunities are huge, whatever they might be.”

She added: “I think everybody needs to understand that business models change, and this mall opened in 1976. So, what business hasn’t had to adapt? I think what we see is an adapt-or-die situation, and I think they’re working on adapting and the mall itself (will) continue to be viable.”

It’s been a rough year for local malls, which are coping with the double whammy of home-bound consumers spending more money online and traditional brick-and-mortar retailers shuttering stores.

Tri-County Mall took a major blow last month when Macy’s Inc. announced it would lose its Tri-County store this spring.

Eastgate Mall, which fell into delinquency on a $32 million loan last April, is now tied up in bankruptcy. Eastgate’s owner, CBL Properties in Chattanooga, Tenn., filed for bankruptcy protection in November, hoping to restructure debt on Eastgate and 106 other properties.

Brookfield Properties opted to resolve its delinquent loan by handing over the deed to Florence Mall on New Year’s Day, according to a regulatory filing to bond holders made public by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Jan. 29.

Both Eastgate and Florence were financed by commercial mortgage-backed securities deals, or CMBS loans, in which banks sell a bundle of commercial loans to bond investors. Because they make money as loans are repaid, the investors get regular updates on problem loans from companies hired to service the debt.

The filings for Florence Mall show the property fell into default last June after having “severe collection issues” from tenants.

Recent social media speculation about its future prompted a Jan. 25 Facebook post: “Florence Mall can confirm we are not closing,” it said. “We are open for all your shopping and dining needs.”

CINCINNATI — Greater Cincinnati’s population increased 5.6% in the last 10 years to more than 2.25 million, according to 2020 Census data released Thursday.

That’s faster growth than Akron, Cleveland and Dayton but slower than Columbus, Indianapolis and Louisville.

The 2020 Census, which represents a snapshot of the U.S. population as of April 1, 2020, takes on added importance this year.

That’s because the official count at the end of each decade is used to apportion seats in Congress, government funding and rank regional rivals. Growing cities often tout their population gains in marketing campaigns, while shrinking towns use the numbers as a call to action.

To that end, Cincinnati has some positive numbers to share. It’s the 30th largest Metropolitan Statistical Area, ranking ahead of Columbus, Cleveland, Indianapolis and Nashville, all cities against which it competes for jobs and corporate investments. Also, for the first time in 70 years, it has a growing urban core. Census data show the city of Cincinnati grew 4.2%, to 309,317, since 2010.

But Greater Cincinnati lags some of its regional peers in the number of fast-growing counties. Only Boone and Warren counties had growth rates above 10% since 2010. The Indianapolis metro has five such counties, while Columbus has three.

While the numbers are important for economic development reasons, they are a crucial ingredient for state redistricting committees, which revise legislative districts at the state and federal level every 10 years.

It will be a hotly contested process in Ohio this year because the Buckeye State will lose one Congressional seat and Republicans need only five seats nationwide to regain control of the U.S. House of Representatives.

The redistricting challenge is greater this year because the Census data is being released much later than in prior years, said Michael Finney, chief financial officer of the Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Service at Ohio University.

It has a state contract to create data maps that the Ohio Redistricting Commission uses to compare how boundary changes impact the number of voters in every legislative district. The data provides block-level head counts that include age and race information.

Finney said it will take about two weeks for Ohio University to finalize its data maps. Members of the redistricting commission will combine that data with voting records and other information to decide which boundaries the political boundaries should be.

“This year, given the fact that the release of the data is so late, it’s going to put a lot of pressure on the map makers,” Finney said, “to make their maps and meet the deadlines that are in the Ohio constitution.”

The redistricting commission faces a Sept. 1 deadline to draw new districts for Ohio politicians, while the deadline for Congressional districts is Sept. 30.

The Census Bureau has been criticized for delays and questioned about the accuracy of the 2020 Census. Last week, the bureau announced it would delay the release of its American Community Survey, which includes more information about poverty, housing and demographics, because it didn’t have big enough samples in all geographies.

But Finney said the data released Thursday has everything Ohio University needs to complete its data maps.

“I’m not concerned about the accuracy,” Finney said. “It’s the data that we use every 10 years. It is the 100% count from the Census Bureau … This is the data that the Ohio constitution requires.”