City turns up heat on Mayo building

LYNN – When city councilors criticized one of the city?s biggest property owners Tuesday for moving homeless families into a recently renovated Broad Street building, they warned a Mayo Group representative they wanted city inspectors to examine upkeep in another company property: 501 Washington St.Mayo invested more than $5 million to renovate its residential buildings on Broad Street, and its 24 Mount Vernon St. residential property is assessed by the city at $3.6 million, but 501 Washington, with its 100 apartments and brick smokestack dominating the building?s center courtyard, is Mayo?s biggest property.It is also a building where tenants, according to city records, called city inspectors 40 times during the last two years to complain about maintenance problems, including no heat, pest infestation and leaking appliances. Lynn Police have logged more than 500 calls regarding 501 Washington St. since January 2012.?I would say it is a lot of calls, but I guess it is par for the course in this section of the city,” said Police Lt. Richard Donnelly.Not all of the calls required action by officers, or resulted in arrests, but Sasha Uribe, a former 501 Washington St. tenant and daughter of a building resident, said 501 Washington St. is the site of drug and gang activity.She said there are gang symbols scrawled on walls and above doors, hallway and laundry room walls are pocked with holes and corridor carpets are covered with stains.?I?m really scared. There are drug addicts who sleep in hallways and leave needles,” she said.Two dozen calls to police so far this month concerning 501 Washington St. – including as many as three calls on one day – included complaints about drugs, threats and assaults.Mayo Vice President for Operations Joseph Donovan said Mayo is “making sure our buildings are safe and secure.”?If a maintenance issue is brought to Mayo?s attention, we will address it. All of our buildings are under contract for pest treatment and cleaning,” Donovan said.Maintenance complaints filed with the city Inspectional Services Department include a Nov. 10 complaint about bedbugs and “disconnected electricity in the kitchen due to fire hazard.” An Oct. 21 complaint states, according to the inspector?s note, “kitchen floor is buckling and the stove is not working.”The Nov. 10 complaint report stated Mayo has until Nov. 24 to make repairs in one apartment and rid the apartment of pests. Donovan said some tenants prefer to call city inspectors rather than file a maintenance request with Mayo.?We do respond to requests. Mayo has dedicated maintenance professionals who field service requests from residents. We take pride in the level of care we exercise in the upkeep of buildings downtown,” Donovan said.He said Mayo, through affiliate Advanced Realty, owns and manages 400 residential units in downtown Lynn. Mayo, according to city assessing department records, owns through limited liability corporations six local buildings, two commercial condominiums and six residential condominiums with a $16.3 million total assessed value. Mayo?s most recent annual property tax bill totaled $314,000.?It was the 10th-biggest taxpayer last year in terms of tax dollars and seventh-biggest in terms of value,” said chief assessor Peter Caron.Uribe lived at 501 Washington St. in 2012, and her mother, Iris Liranzo, has lived there for three years. She said Mayo representatives are more diligent about collecting rent from tenants than they are about tending to building maintenance.Donovan said company maintenance representatives respond to complaints as fast they can and that 501 Washington is one of Mayo?s older buildings.?In these types of buildings, you have a higher level of maintenance requests,” he said.Councilors made it clear to Mayo representative Jody Harrah on Tuesday that they feel Mayo “made side deals behind our back,” in Ward 6 Councilor Peter Capano?s words, when the firm signed a lease with housing provider Centerboard to house 30 famil