Hillsborough: Landlord tries a novel way out

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 -- Most landlords hit with enough code violations to shut down a lucrative apartment complex would start fixing it up in a hurry.

Steven Green is not most landlords.

In May, after the county found more than 500 code violations at Green's Amberwood Apartments and padlocked the 212-unit complex in northern Hillsborough, Green turned his back on the repairs required to reopen.

Instead, he filed a claim with his insurance company for the rental income he had lost.

"Wow, I've never heard of that before," said Don Shea, Hillsborough County's director of community improvements. "That's a new wrinkle on doing business."

The insurance company isn't paying. Nationwide Mutual, the carrier for Amberwood, denied Green's claim. Then, on Sept. 27, it sued Green's apartment holding company, Amberwood Realty Corp.

The insurance company said in court papers that it has no responsibility under Green's policy to pay for "lost rent incurred as a result of code compliance at undamaged buildings." The company has asked for a jury trial to affirm its decision.

Nationwide did pay about $500,000 for one building at Amberwood damaged by a fire in May, Shea said.

How much Green sought in his claim for rent at the 16 undamaged buildings is unclear. Neither Nationwide nor its attorney could be reached for comment. Green's attorney, Glenn Goldberg, did not return a call.

But with rents at Amberwood running about $600 a month when the complex was shut down, the rental income from the undamaged buildings could be as much as $120,000 a month. In the six months since Amberwood was shut down, that would amount to $720,000.

Meanwhile, county fines in Hillsborough's largest-ever code enforcement case continue to climb. Through Friday, the $5,000-a-day fines amounted to $638,000.

The list of the more than 500 violations at Amberwood, a two-story complex west of Interstate 275 near 124th Avenue, consists mostly of electrical and smoke alarm deficiencies. The county raised daily fines to $5,000 when Green failed to secure the complex from intrusion by vagrants and others, including children from a nearby school.

Shea said recent inspections found open windows at Amberwood where homeless people have continued to seek refuge.

"This time of the year, we have an influx of vagrants because of our climate," Shea said. "But with the cooler weather, they begin to look for a roof over their head."

The county is scheduled to meet next week with Amberwood investors to find a possible solution for the eyesore. Records show that First Union National Bank holds a $9.04-million mortgage on Amberwood. Green bought the complex in May 2000 for $4-million.

The Amberwood litigation is the latest legal problem for Green, a 37-year-old Yonkers man who was listed by the Village Voice as one of New York City's "10 worst landlords" in the early 1990s.

After buying and losing 16 buildings in the Bronx and piling up $2.3-million in housing fines in New York, Green turned his attention to Hillsborough County. He acquired a dozen apartment complexes valued at more than $20-million, a South Tampa mansion worth $1.78-million and a reputation for hosting lavish parties at his 8,157-square-foot home at 801 S Delaware Ave.

But lately, process servers have been more numerous than partygoers.

In June, SunTrust Banks foreclosed on Green's mansion, saying he had missed two $3,789 monthly payments and had refused to file a current financial statement. Green claims he is a victim of anti-Semitism, a charge SunTrust vigorously denies.

In August, the St. Petersburg Times published a story about Green's use of a fictitious company to file a $135,000 claim for an apartment fire that investigators said did $40,000 worth of damage. The bid for the repair work was signed by a friend of Green's who died seven weeks before the fire occurred.

In October, Wells Fargo Bank Minnesota foreclosed on Green's Club at Woodland Pond apartments, claiming Green defaulted on a $6.36-million loan agreement by transferring the property and obtaining a second mortgage without the bank's consent.

In early November, two New York investors accused Green in another lawsuit of fraud in a failed attempt to purchase Green's Greenwich Commons apartments. The two investors said Green refused to provide income or tax statements for the apartments, then schemed to keep their deposit of $28,989, instructing his bank to apply the money to his past-due mortgage payment.

-- Jeff Testerman can be reached at (813) 226-3422 or testerman@sptimes.com .

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Landlord tries a novel way out