The Eastern Highlands property on LeForge Road in Ypsilanti Township.
Tom Perkins | For AnnArbor.cm
Jailed Ypsilanti landlord David Kircher’s largest property has a new owner after the sale closed last week.
A court appointed bankruptcy agent sold the multi-family apartment complex known as Eastern Highlands for $1.21 million to Capital Investment Company, LLC of Ann Arbor. The sale closed Wednesday.
The property at 1266 LeForge Road in Ypsilanti Township was subject to an investigation in 2004 that led to Kirchner being sentenced to a 5-year prison term for pumping raw sewage from the complex into the Huron River.
Only 47 of the 128 units at the complex are inhabitable. Some have been completely stripped down to their studs, while others are “shells” that need significant work.
“For someone that wants to go in and fix them up building by building, there’s a lot of upside here,” Colliers International Ann Arbor agent Brendan Cavender said. “And I think they’re going to do that.”
Cavender, who along with Jim Chaconas represented Douglass Ellman, the US Bankruptcy Court Trustee, said that there was a lot of interest in this property from across the country.
“People see a 128 unit property right on a college campus, and these days that attracts a lot of attention,” he said.
“We had calls from Texas, California, Boston, really everywhere. Unfortunately since they let some of the best buildings go into disrepair that scared some of the potential buyers off.”
He added that despite the dilapidated condition of some of the buildings, the bidding on the property was aggressive, with nearly 10 companies taking part in the auction held in September. The starting bid for the property was $500,000.
Township records show that the assessor valued the property at $375,900 for tax purposes, making its market sale value approximately $750,000.
Nearby River's Edge Apartments, also on LeForge Road, was purchased in June for an undisclosed amount and is going to be re-branded and re-developed by its new owners.
Colliers also is representing Ellman in the sale of the remaining Kircher properties that are being managed as part of his Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings.
Cavender said the total value of closed homes is approximately $1.5 million, with several more due to close in the coming weeks. Kircher’s debt has been reported at approximately $2.7 million.
Capital Investment Company declined to discuss its plans for development of the property for this article.
Ben Freed covers business for AnnArbor.com. You can sign up here to receive Business Review updates every week. Reach out to Ben at 734-623-2528 or email him at benfreed@annarbor.com. Follow him on twitter @BFreedinA2