Three months after the Prince George’s County Circuit Court appointed a receiver for the Charlestowne North apartment building, the City of Greenbelt will issue a regular rental license to Tarantino Properties for the remainder of the fiscal year through August 2024.
City officials and residents have reported that there have been some steps taken toward overall improvements of Charlestowne North. For at least a year before the receivership, the apartment building was severely neglected by the former property manager, Charlestowne North Holding Company LLC. Contractors and utilities began to refuse to work on the property for lack of payment, which exacerbated what would normally be serious but fixable issues and led to the LLC losing its rental license due to failure to comply with city code and led to Freddie Mac filing for foreclosure and emergency receivership against the owner in January of this year.
Notable upgrades since February include targeted renovations of units affected by multiple floods due to pipes bursting, a repaired security door that is now functional, regular landscaping and grounds maintenance coming back and efforts made to clear specific code violations. While progress has been made, there is still work to be done. Most recently, an inspection on May 21 noted that elevator certification and a lead certification both need renewal.
Many units remain in disrepair, and due to the avalanche of issues and violations, there are dozens of vacancies in the 178-unit complex. “The units that experienced significant water damage initially remain vacant and will stay unoccupied until we conduct a final walkthrough,” explained City Manager Josué Salmerón.
“I’m satisfied with the progress, but it’s slow going,” said longtime resident Audrey Johnson. “It’s going to take time to get to what we remember.” “Not all of us have good A/C or even working A/C,” said resident Hannah Gould. “The swimming pool is not opening by Memorial Day because of resurfacing.”
In spite of the challenges and upheaval at Charlestowne North, residents, community leaders and city officials banded together to save a part of Greenbelt. “I really appreciate [Josué Salmerón’s]’ efforts,” Johnson said of the Greenbelt city manager. “He’s been reliable and approachable. He’s done an outstanding job. The City of Greenbelt, too.” As for the future, Salmerón stated, “Now that Freddie Mac is the owner of the property … they intend to continue the relationship with Tarantino … to have them be the property management for Freddie Mac. They’ve shared with me that their intent is to ultimately sell the property. At the moment, they are stabilizing [it].”
The new rental license for the property will start on September 1.