09.20.2024

Contrarian Boston gets action | Behind Teamsters’ shocking stiff-arm of Dems, a labor leader with deep Boston roots | Harris rising in polls anyway | GOP candidate meltdown in North Carolina | Tenants at Watertown luxury apartment complex getting the boot amid legal dispute between developers |

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Sold a lemon? With water damage and tenants with “free rent” deals, deluxe Watertown apartment complex isn’t all that its cracked up to be, lawsuit by owner contends

With sun filled windows, private decks, and “professionally designed European kitchens,” the online description of Riverpark Lofts sound as close to heaven as a renter in Greater Boston’s notoriously tight market can reasonably expect to get.

But in a lawsuit filed in state court, the real estate firm that shelled out $37 million for the upscale Watertown apartment complex in 2021 paints a very different picture.

Chauncy Place Corp. contends the five building apartment complex near Watertown center has suffered millions of dollars in water damage due to a shoddy design and poor workmanship by contractors hired by the previous owner, according to court documents reviewed by Contrarian Boston.

Oh yeah, and then there is the nearly $140,000 promotional “free rent” deals with tenants that Chauncy said was never disclosed by the former owners, World Realty & Development, who have filed an extensive rebuttal of the charges.

Caught in the crossfire between the squabbling real estate firms? Well that would be the dozens of tenants who call Riverpark Lofts home and who pay rents ranging from $2,600 to $4,500 a month. Not to mention Nzuko, a restaurant that leases space in one of the buildings as well.

In fact, some residents of the Watertown apartment complex are now facing potential eviction as Chauncy moves ahead with plans for extensive repairs to the buildings and apartments at Riverpark Lofts.

Others, like Kevin Burchby, are wondering whether they will be the next to be ordered to vacate the premises, despite having signed year-long leases that in theory should protect them.

Married just a year ago, Burchby and his wife moved into their unit in March and have been pleased with it, their old apartment in Cambridge having been infested with mice.

Others have been less lucky: a neighbor in another Riverpark Lofts building has had flooding issues.

In fact, the residents of one building were given until the end of August to move out, while tenants in two other building were recently informed they would have to be out by the end of October, he noted.

“We are sort of on edge,” Burchby told Contrarian Boston. “It seems like things are rolling toward us.”

Alarmed, Burchby and a group of Riverpark Lofts residents recently met over dinner to form a tenants association and are now exploring their options.

If they have to move before their leases expire, residents would at least like some assistance from the owner of the Watertown apartment complex, such as in finding new apartments or defraying the likely higher rents they will have to pay in a tight market, Burchby said.

Meanwhile, Burchby wants to know why the owner of the apartment complex, Chauncy Place, continued inking 12-month leases with new tenants in recent months when it must have known there were serious water damage issues.

Chauncy first filed its lawsuit in state court in May, just two months after signing a lease with Burchby and his wife.

Contrarian Boston reached out to attorneys for both Chauncy Place and the previous owner for comment, but did not hear back by our deadline.

Stinging rebuke: Teamsters chief and Boston guy Sean O’Brien makes headlines as union disses the Democratic presidential ticket

We’re waiting to see if what’s left of the local mainstream media picks up on one of the biggest stories in this high-stakes presidential election.

But given how the story challenges threadbare Democratic party rhetoric about being the party of the working class, we are not holding our breath.

Sean O’Brien rose through the ranks to become a top Massachusetts labor leader before taking over the 1.3 million-strong International Brotherhood of Teamsters more than two years ago.

Now O’Brien, a long-time Boston area guy, who still spends weekends at a house by the shore in Marshfield, has thrust himself and his union into the center of the 2024 election.