Fifeville tenant Michael Lannutti knew his landlords were selling their property at 918 Grove St. to a larger rental and development company, Grove Street Properties LLC. So he was pleasantly surprised to learn in February from the soon-to-be property manager Tim Slagle that he could stay on with only a slight rent increase. But two months later, Slagle called back: Lannutti had to get out by May 15, citing a new closing date of May 1 and vague plans.
Meanwhile, Lannutti’s neighbor Troy Rogers in 920 Grove St. faced a similar problem. Even though Rogers and his partner, Melissa, had signed a lease lasting through May 2008 with Grove Street Properties, Slagle told them in late April they needed to be out by the end of May—again, without specifying why.
 Grove Street Properties LLC is consolidating roughly three acres in Fifefille. The company had a listing on a local real estate website advertising the possibility of a 249-unit project on 2.5 acres, though it’s since been taken off the market. |
Rogers ended up working things out with Slagle, who acted for his boss, Richard Hewitt, and the company Grove Street Properties LLC. “Tim was really fair with us in dealing with it,” Rogers says. Lannutti and Slagle still haven’t come to terms on a move out date—Slagle wants him out several days before the end of the June, which would leave Lannutti homeless during that time.
What’s the rush? Hewitt and Slagle didn’t return multiple calls for comment. But what did arise between February and April was a report on a Fifeville historic district, on the national and state level initially, and possibly on the local level—plans that would have designated the houses that Lannutti and Rogers live in as “contributing resources.” And those same houses are some of the only pieces that stand in the way of Grove Street Properties consolidating three acres in the heart of Fifeville.
Few local neighborhoods exemplify the dilemmas of gentrification more than Fifeville does. Its ideal location, within a 10-minute walk of both the Corner and Downtown, makes housing developers salivate—particularly with the possibility of special permits for high density. Yet the historically working-class and mixed-race neighborhood now finds prices pushing out some longtime residents, even though Cherry Avenue, which runs along Fifeville’s southern border, is still more known for its hookers than for its haute couture.
High density infill projects, like the 225-unit Walker Square built in 2005, have created a backlash among a vocal group of Fifeville residents. Even a six-unit project on Grove Street was opposed last year by neighbors wary of more cars on the street and the possibility of more units on the way.
With opposition to those projects, it’s hard to imagine designs like those of Grove Street Properties going over well. For at least several months in 2006, the company listed the 2.5 acres it owns in Fifeville on Bob Kahn’s real estate website. The asking price? Ten million dollars. The listing included a “conceptual” site plan with 249 housing units in three buildings.
“The density numbers don’t work,” says Brian Haluska, a city planner. “We’ve never had a site plan submitted on it. Until that happens, I think it’s one of those pipe dreams out there.” Under current zoning, even with special use permits, the 2.5 acres could only support up to 43 units—1.5 of those acres are zoned industrial.
The Fifeville historic district has recently been taken off the table. After hired consultants completed an application for the National Register of Historic Places in March, some locals expressed angry opposition and City Council dropped the idea in mid-May.
It doesn’t change matters for Lannutti and Rogers. They still have to be out by June and July respectively. And the houses they live in, deemed by the consultants to be contributing historic structures built in 1895, might soon be gone too.
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