Facing rental increases of hundreds of dollars per month, long-term residents of the Park Towers apartment complex asked for help during public comment at Monday’s Municipal Advisory Council (MAC) meeting.

Four Park Towers residents spoke at the MAC meeting, and they were joined by about 20 of their neighbors. Vasona Management, which provides property management services at Park Towers, notified residents of rent increases on January 19, 2015.

Alex McMurray, a teacher at Proctor Elementary School, his wife Kari, who works at a dental office in Fremont, and their three children have lived in their three-bedroom unit since 2007. Effective April 1, 2015, the McMurray’s rent will increase by $375 from $1,625 to $1,995. Other Park Towers residents are seeing similar rent increases above 20 percent.

“Our concern is that many of the tenants who are long time Castro Valley residents will be displaced out of their homes and forced to leave the community we call home,” McMurray said. “Are we the first domino that falls in a domino effect of what could be a future of new apartment ownership and rent increases that force people out of the community due to unaffordability?”

At a Sunday afternoon meeting of some Park Towers residents, many residents expressed their frustration with the increase despite on-going maintenance issues at the complex, including broken washers and dryers, mold, and leaking ceilings.

Park Towers residents posted additional photos of their apartments on the Castro Valley Matters Facebook page.

According to public records, Windy Hill Property Ventures bought Park Towers in November 2014.

Windy Hill seeks “to acquire and reposition multifamily and commercial properties from San Francisco to the greater Silicon Valley providing amplified, risk-adjusted returns,” according to its mission statement on its website. Recent properties that Windy Hill has acquired and repositioned include the 44 unit “Alta off the Avenue” complex in Burlingame and the 88 unit Palmetto Apartments in Mountain View.

According to Tod Spieker, a co-founder of Windy Hill, he and his partners “paid a lot of money” for the property and plan on making substantial upgrades to it. “Residents will get a lot more,” he said. Based on current rents at the Park Towers, “we can’t service our debt” Spieker said.

Jesse Estrada, the community manager at Park Towers and an employee of Vasona Management, emailed the following statement to Castro Valley Matters:

Due to a change in ownership and management rents were increased at Park Towers because they were significantly below market. We understand the increases were large but unfortunately necessary, even after these increases the rents at this community will still be well below market rents in this area. The new ownership group plans on investing a large amount of money into the property and into making necessary repairs inside and out of the apartments that may have been overlooked by previous management. Future property improvements, some of which are currently underway, will include: new swimming pool area and fencing, roof repairs, complete paint and landscaping, adding a new rec. room and gym, male and female bathrooms / shower rooms for the gym and pool area, a new leasing office, along with renovating units as they come available.”

Unincorporated Alameda County communities like Castro Valley do not have rent control.

The Board of Supervisors passed a “Mandatory Notification of Rent Mediation Services Ordinance” in 2003 that requires landlords to disclose the availability of non-binding mediation, facilitated through Alameda County, between landlord and renters who face rent increases.

3.68.060 – Request for rent review or mediation.
Either a landlord or a tenant may seek rent review services concerning any rent increase. Either a landlord or a tenant may request rent mediation if the proposed rent increase (1) raises the rent to an amount more than ten percent (10%) greater than the base rent, (2) increases the monthly rent by an amount greater than seventy-five dollars ($75.00) per month, or (3) follows a prior rent increase imposed within the previous twelve (12) month period.”

Kari McMurray and her neighbors received information about mediation the services in their rental increase notices, and they are eager to pursue this option after the MAC heard their concerns tonight. “I felt more encouraged,” McMurray said, “At least it’s not a complete dead end.”

In a recent San Jose Mercury News article, the average rent in Alameda County in the last quarter of 2014, according to the research firm RealFacts, was $2,002.

Have you faced a recent rent increase? Share your story with Castro Valley Matters.