Prime Real Estate Ellis Acted in Santa Monica
A member of the community reached out to me recently regarding 123-135 San Vicente Boulevard in Santa Monica, which have been empty since 2018.
The property is part of the San Vicente Courtyard Apartments Historic District. In fact, there’s a blue Santa Monica landmark sign right outside the complex.
The buildings were emptied by (what else) the damn Ellis Act.
The owner is a corporation with an address at a multi-unit commercial property in the Palisades…although it wasn’t hard to determine who is behind that corporation. (Digging through building records, I also found a residential address in Van Nuys that the corporation’s owner falsely listed as being in Sherman Oaks - trust this Valley Girl, it is not - but being embarrassed for them is a bit beyond this entry.)
The first code complaint lists dilapidation, transients entering the premises, a broken window, improperly boarded windows, a broken and unsecured fence, a missing vent for a crawl space, an unsecured garage, and failing to provide a trespass arrest authorization with the police department. Owners of vacant properties in Santa Monica are also required to secure gates with a combination lock (and, presumably, give the combination to the police department for trespass enforcement, etc.), which, according to code enforcement, the owner of this property has not done.
The next code complaint is for bees on the premises. Bees really shouldn’t be swarming in the walls of ANY residence, and Santa Monica only allows bees at single-family homes (of which there are few in Santa Monica) that have beekeeping permits from Animal Control.
The owner was fined for trash, overgrown vegetation, and the broken fence in September.
The city has no demolition or redevelopment plans on file (so far), but there are concerns in the community about that possibly changing at some point because a nearby condo building is currently undergoing a “luxury” remodel.
And even if it weren’t, this is a PRIME location a block from Palisades Park.
I’m so tired of this. And angry.
It's infuriating that cities allow speculators to empty out the best kinds of multifamily housing, and that elected officials pretend they can't see it. Every empty unit is a dead dream, a family that has no home, a rot on the face of a once beautiful town. We need a private right of action to sue these killers of our towns.