Residents of 177-unit Oakland Co. building told to move out for renovations

Residents of a 177-unit apartment building in Madison Heights have been told to pack up and leave later this spring as the building's owner prepares to do renovations.

The residents and ground-floor retail tenants of Concord Towers Apartments, 32600 Concord Drive near I-75 and Oakland Mall, were first notified in February 2022 that renovation work was planned and that they must leave in early 2023, according to the building's management firm.

Their deadline to be out was later extended several times and is now May 31, said Danette Stenta, senior vice president of marketing for Beztak Properties, which manages Concord Towers.

More:Oakland County boss touts new jobs but plugs values in Michigan's richest county

More:Pandemic fallout nudges nonprofit's $20M expansion in Oakland County

Concord Towers is an eight-story, market-rate building with one- and two-bedroom apartments with rents that were between about $850 to $1,000 per month. Recent retail tenants include a computer store, an international courier service and the still-open Concord Party Shoppe.

Stenta said the renovation plans aren't yet final and no start date has been set. Yet one possibility, he said, could involve converting the ground-floor retail spaces into studio apartments while the existing apartments get redone.

“They still have to finalize their decision as to exactly what they’re doing," she said.

Property records show the building has been owned since 2005 by a limited liability corporation known as CT Apartments. Stenta declined to identify the underlying owner, although Chicago-based real estate investment firm Zaragon lists Concord Towers on its website as a building that Zaragon owns.

A Zaragon representative did not respond to a message seeking comment.

Apartment buildings in Detroit sometimes allow tenants to stay during renovations by shuffling them around in a building as the working progresses. Stenta said that isn't a strategy that Concord Towers' owner is considering.

By having everyone in the building leave, she said, “they can move the renovation along quicker. And the renovations are likely going to be quite expensive.”

One building resident, Hope Davidson, 34, said Tuesday that she is anxious about the move-out date and isn't sure where she will move to. She has lived in Concord Towers since 2016 and said she pays $970 a month for a two-bedroom apartment. Her unit has had a mold problem, she said, stemming from a bathroom ceiling leak.

Madison Heights City Manager Melissa Marsh said the city is glad to see that Concord Towers will be getting much-needed renovations and that residents were given more than a year to find new accommodations.

City officials will work with Oakland County and the local senior center to make sure that the existing residents find new places to live, she said.

“I understand some people are upset, but the whole place does need to be renovated," Marsh said.

"The city isn’t in favor of just moving people from one floor to another (during renovations) because there are quite a few things in the building that need to be updated altogether," the city manager said. "We’re more into trying to connect them with services to get them moving somewhere else. I do think that evacuating the whole building may be the best avenue to get the renovations completed.”

City officials in the past cited the building for various minor issues, such as litter and signs in the wrong location, Marsh said. The biggest recent issue was a 2021 flood on the fourth floor that required some temporary evacuations, she said.

Concord Towers' owner has offered residents the option to move into other apartment buildings that it owns in the area, with waived application and administrative fees.

"The ownership group is excited to make the investment in the building," said Stenta, the building's management firm representative.

Contact JC Reindl: 313-378-5460 or jcreindl@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @jcreindl.