A dream neighbor, nightmare landlord

Steven Green's tenants complain of abysmal conditions at high prices, while he lives in a $1.4-million home and throws lavish parties.

[Times photo: Toni L. Sandys] A large area behind a vacant apartment in Green's Ashley Square complex in West Tampa has been fenced off as a trash dump for old appliances and furniture.

By KATHRYN WEXLER and JEFF TESTERMAN
© St. Petersburg Times
published May 13, 2002

Clarification In a series of articles published in the St. Petersburg Times, certain apartment complexes, including Amberwood Apartments, were identified as being owned by Steven S. Green, personally. However, these properties are or were owned solely by corporations in which Mr. Green is a shareholder, and were not owned by Mr. Green, personally.

TAMPA -- A handsome outsider bought a ramshackle mansion two years ago in Hyde Park and began restoring it to its original glory, setting tongues wagging in this genteel South Tampa neighborhood.

After months of renovations, invitations finally arrived for an open house. Standing at the door was Steven Green, a smooth-talking New York bachelor who made a great impression.

"He was very gracious," said neighbor Lydia Wardell. "He didn't put on any airs."

Green told his new friends he made his living from real estate.

The 37-year-old Yonkers native also has snapped up 12 Hillsborough County properties in the past several years, most of them huge rental complexes bought on the cheap and rented to struggling families.

For all his troubles, Steven Green seems to keep his hefty earnings intact. [WTSP-TV]

Unlike the goodwill Green has engendered in South Tampa, some of his tenants say he is a lousy landlord who does little work and squeezes them for money.

"What we have here is a classic slum lord," said Stephen Loeb, a Manhattan attorney who sued Green over the abysmal condition of a Harlem apartment building.

In Tampa, Green was drawn into the public spotlight last week when scores of renters were forced to move after code inspectors padlocked his Amberwood Apartments in north Hillsborough. County officials now say they have found some 500 violations, including exposed wires, water-damaged ceilings and disconnected fire alarms.

Green's problems at that complex and others have ballooned into the largest single-owner code enforcement case ever presented in Hillsborough County. The hearing is set for this week.

But for all his troubles, Green always seems to keep his hefty earnings intact. He has consistently obtained fat mortgages, sometimes worth double what he paid for the complexes.

Meanwhile, his local dealings have left others -- lenders, repairmen, code enforcement officials and residents -- holding the bag.

Green declined to be interviewed for this story. When reached at his New York office, he warned a reporter to stay away from his South Tampa home.

Problems in New York

Green came from humble beginnings, according to press reports, and spent his boyhood in Yonkers, attending a Head Start program as a child.

At one time, he was a delicatessen worker.

But Green showed remarkable business acumen when he entered the heady real estate market of the 1980s while still in his early 20s. He accumulated property after property, all heavily mortgaged.

The money apparently didn't find its way back to repairs. Green soon was drawing the attention of code inspectors. Fines were levied and orders given to fix up the buildings.

Both, apparently, were ignored. So were bills from subcontractors, according to lawsuits. Then Green began missing mortgage payments.

Banks foreclosed on 10 of his properties, according to a 1990 story in the Village Voice, the New York tabloid that named him one of the city's 10 worst landlords. The News Journal, which covers Green's hometown of Yonkers, reported the same year that he owned 16 buildings in the Bronx.

The buildings are no longer in Green's name, said Kim Brown, spokeswoman for New York City's housing department. The city will likely write off $2.3-million in fines as losses, she said.

In 1990, Green was jailed at the Bronx House of Detention. He had shut off hot water to residents of a Queens building in winter and then angered the judge by not showing up for a hearing in the case. He was sentenced to 30 days.

"After all this, people might be a little hesitant about giving me a mortgage," Green told the Village Voice reporter from his jail cell.

"Maybe I'll move to Florida."

Money keeps rolling in

Thousands of pages of documents recorded at the Hillsborough County Courthouse reveal Green's particular pattern of real estate investment, a system that keeps the cash rolling in.

Green typically buys an aging apartment complex in need of work, getting a bargain price and a venture capital mortgage loan that keeps his down payment near zero.

He hires painters, landscapers and other workers to do renovations as a prelude to raising rents. He often keeps his contractors waiting for their money. As his cash flow improves, Green uses his new apartment complex as collateral for a new, larger mortgage loan from a big bank or other conventional lender.

Amberwood is a perfect example.

Under a company called Amberwood Realty, Green bought the 212-unit complex in May of 2000 for $4-million. Arbor National Commercial Mortgage Co. gave him a $7-million loan to make the purchase.

Then Green hired a fence company, plumbers, carpet installers, cabinetmakers, painters and other contractors to spruce up the apartments. But Green refused to pay 10 of those contractors, who later filed liens against the complex for more than $164,180.

Meanwhile, Green went to First Union National Bank for a new loan on Amberwood, this one for $9.04-million.

Citing privacy matters, First Union would not discuss the transaction or Green's creditworthiness. But the loan amount astounded local officials.

"I'm shocked at that number," said deputy Hillsborough property appraiser Warren Weathers. "We have it assessed for about $3.5-million. I can't see how the work he did at Amberwood translated into more than doubling the value out there."

"It slays me how he is able to get a bank to give him that much money on those apartments," said Don Shea, the county's community improvement director. "It's bizarre."

In addition, Shea said, some 50 electric meters were swapped out at Amberwood and at Green's Hunter's Pointe Apartments. A TECO spokesman said the company is investigating whether power was stolen.

"The investigator I talked to said the meter swapping was done by someone who seemed to be knowledgeable about the process," Shea said.

Problems have surfaced elsewhere, too.

Inspectors are slated to go door-to-door at Green's Marathon Key and Colonial Parc complexes this week to ensure that wiring has been fixed and no fire safety problems remain. Both complexes, located in "Suitcase City" near the University of South Florida area, are mostly vacant while renovations are being made.

But fines already are piling up at other locations. Green still owes the county $1,600 for violations at Ashley Oaks and $37,500 for Colonial Parc.

Meanwhile, Green is trying to unload one of his complexes for top dollar, even though the city of Tampa has condemned a building there because the foundation is sinking and the walls are cracking.

According to a 2001 listing, he is asking $6.4-million for the 128-unit Horizon Pointe Apartments at 4900 N MacDill Ave.

Frank Leto, a Great American Realty of Tampa broker handling the listing, said the complex's condition is "excellent," despite a city condemnation order issued for six units in March.

"That building is habitable. There's just a crack in the building because of a pond nearby," Leto said. "Those guys at the city are not engineers. They're not contractors. They're just inspectors."

City inspector Randy Smith said, "It's a significant problem when you have a crack in a wall big enough to put your hand into.

"He can sell the complex if he wants," Smith said, "but we're not going to let anybody move into that building."

A generous neighbor

No matter how tarnished his business dealings, Green seems always to make his personal life sparkle.

In the Park Hill neighborhood in Yonkers where Green spends much of his time, friends talk of his compassion and largesse.

"Everyone knows Steve," said Lumi Gomez, who babysits for one of Green's neighbors. "He gives great parties."

He is credited with accelerating the neighborhood's renaissance after he bought and renovated a dilapidated 12,000-square-foot mansion in 1993.

One friend, Katherine Haas, said Green has been nothing but a dream neighbor. He's an outspoken booster of preservation, she said. He bought several properties surrounding his house and renovated them, too. He even imported foreign tile to make the roof of one just so.

Friends say his is generous, as well. Mrs. Haas said he has given her son tickets to NBA games. And he invited her to U.S. Open tennis matches. "He always has such nice seats."

But he is most beloved for his lavish, huge parties.

For one, he hired the 1970s band Captain and Tennille. For another, it was Cheap Trick. He brought in monologist Spalding Gray for a birthday bash..

"There was a big bowl of caviar at one," Mrs. Haas said. "I've been to picnics where he had mountains of lobsters piled up."

[Times photo: Thomas Goethe] Steven Green lives in this $1.4-million mansion he bought and renovated in Hyde Park in South Tampa two years ago. The third floor is a ballroom.

Abysmal conditions

Green's tenants don't fare as well.

Deborah Blackwell, 44, an employee at the James A. Haley VA Medical Center, found conditions barely tolerable at one Green apartment complex before being moved to another down the street. But the move boosted her two-bedroom rent by almost 50 percent, to $609 a month.

At Las Palmas, a complex Green bought and now calls Colonial Parc, Blackwell said she had no air conditioning for months, a water-damaged stove and a view of a pool that was permanently closed.

Power outages were frequent. Rent a day late brought a $50 late charge.

"It didn't seem right to me," Blackwell said. "Then they moved us down here (to Ashley Oaks).

The county cited her new complex for a number of electrical and fire safety violations in January. Fire officials are scheduled to make re-inspections this week.

The glass in the fire extinguisher case outside Blackwell's apartment was still shattered and the fire extinguisher missing when a reporter visited Thursday. Blackwell said the outside street lights were only turned on at night recently, after a stabbing in the area.

"It is better here," she said. "But I think I'm still paying too much."

Giovanni Bibicus, a secretary supporting a family of three, pays $660 rent for a two-bedroom apartment at Ashley Square in West Tampa, Green's latest acquisition. For several days last week, Bibicus kept a bowl beneath the kitchen sink because it leaked so badly. On Wednesday, standing brown sewage had come up into the basin and was clogging the drain.

"Everybody's fed up here," Bibicus said.

So are dozens of local subcontractors who charge in court papers that Green bilked them.

Marissa and Zoltan Lovrencsius, owners of a tiny paint company, said Green paid them for their first job at Amberwood. So the couple didn't flinch when he hired them to do more work at his other complexes, eventually running up a $40,000 bill.

Nothing was paid. When the company sued, Green claimed as a defense that the painters weren't licensed in Hillsborough County. In fact, they are licensed, in Pasco County.

"I think he's just trying to find any excuse not to pay us," she said.

Denise Anderson, owner of Bay Area Janitorial Service, said she had employees clean apartments at Hunter's Pointe six months ago. Green never paid the $1,000 he owed for her services.

"This is a small business," she said, "and we're all trying to make an honest living."

'He's a nice man'

On a street where every house has a certain stateliness, Green's red brick mansion on Delaware Avenue is a breathtaking standout.

Statues of lions frame the $1.4-million home. A grand staircase sweeps from the ample foyer, where a Spanish-speaking maid answers the door. The third floor is a ballroom.

Not long ago, a select few friends were invited to an intimate gathering. The guest of honor was singer and songwriter Neil Sedaka.

Green has such a big collection of expensive cars he approached the city of Temple Terrace in February about building a 10-space garage to shelter them.

As in Yonkers, he has established himself here as an advocate for preservation. He joined the Hyde Park Preservation Club and hosted its Christmas party last year.

"He's a nice man," said Elizabeth Harrell, board member of the Old Hyde Park Garden Club.

Some acquaintances are standing by him despite his recent public tribulations. They say they don't know about his business dealings, but that he has impressed them as honorable.

"I'm sorry for those that were affected by all of the living conditions, but the Steve Green I've known for a year and a half is a kind man," Mrs. Wardell said.

"And if he says he'll fix the problems, I have confidence he'll fix the problems. If he's given a chance."

-- Times researchers Kitty Bennett and John Martin contributed to this report. Kathryn Wexler can be reached at (813) 226-3383. Jeff Testerman is at (813) 226-3422.

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