Focus Thurston Road

So I am going to try and do an on going focus into properties along Thurston Road. Today I am starting with 357-359 Thurston Road / 1-11 Penhurst St, since it is a property I see everyday, I thought it would be a good place to start.

357-359 Thurston Road
Owned by: MARCUS & SOLOMON ASSOC LLC
Website: http://marcusandsolomon.propertyware.com
Taxes Paid: No
City Tax Listing for 357 Thurston Road
Amount Owed: $3,997.95
City Tax Listing for 359 Thurston Road
Amount Owed:$2,725.85
City Tax Listing for 1-11 Penhurst St
Amount Owed:$3,333.56
Total Taxes Due: $10,057.36
Total Number of Units: 33 (Estimate)
Unit Rental Price $450-$650
Gross Annual Income from Units: $205,200 (if all rented)

I love what they website has to say about their properties.
"Tenants We manage some of the areas most desirable and affordable rentals. Our progressive staff members are consistently working to improve the quality of service and attention to detail are the best ways to provide comfortable communities for the people who have chosen our rentals. Our tenants feel comfortable knowing that 24 hours a day, 7 days a week they will be able to reach a qualified employee who will promptly address any maintenance issue as it relates to their safety or the integrity of your property."

Most desirable rentals??? Attention to details??? Really? Funny that the sofa out front of the place has been sitting there for a month now. Welcome to the neighborhood MARCUS & SOLOMON ASSOC LLC from your friends at Location19.

I am going to contact them and try to get a response. Ill post my response below.
-Shawn

My email to MARCUS & SOLOMON ASSOC LLC

On your website you claim to have "some of the most desirable properties". I live in a neighborhood near one of your properties. I was wondering if you could please invest sometime into cleaning and maintaining your properties? There are many folks in the 19th Ward that are trying hard and investing in the area. And we would appreciate, if you could help in this effort, and help create properties that are like you say "...some of the most desirable"
Thank you
Shawn O'Hara
www.location19.org

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Permalink Reply by Margy Meath on September 3, 2009 at 3:23pm

This is great Shawn!!
I'd like to suggest a simultaneous complaint to NSC. THIS VERY property has been on the 'radar' for years - I've personally complained about it (and others) before. Code enforcement in this neighborhood continues to be hit and miss and quite weak - perhaps attacking the problem from multiple perspectives will help- i.e. direct citizen pressure on owners AND on the City to enforce the existing property codes.
thanks for doing this

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Permalink Reply by Hilary Homer on September 3, 2009 at 3:33pm

This is a darn good idea, Shawn.

Here's mine:

To Whom it May Concern:

I was unsure to whom I should direct my letter, as no contact information for your company leadership is provided on your website. I will continue trying to find this information so that I may direct my communication to the appropriate corporate officer. In the meantime, I would like to ask for your help with respect to your property at 357-359 Thurston Road/1-11 Penhurst Street, Rochester, NY.

I live in the 19th Ward section of the City of Rochester, just a few blocks from the above address. The 19th Ward is a vibrant community whose residents take great pride in its history and the beauty and charm of its built environment. These residents devote extraordinary time and energy to taking care of their streets and neighborhoods so that the 19th Ward will remain a safe, clean, and pleasant place to live and raise families. Some of the properties on Thurston Road, including your property at 357-359 Thurston/1-11 Penhurst, are in need of some care and attention that only their owners and managers can provide.

Thurston Road is a major thoroughfare through the 19th Ward, and improving the condition of this property will have a substantial impact on the neighborhood environment. This will, in turn, benefit owners and managers who maintain and lease properties in the area. Would you kindly assist the residents of the 19th Ward in caring for their community, and invest some time into the maintenance of 357-359 Thurston Road/1-11 Penhurst Street? I appreciate your attention to this matter.

Most sincerely,

Hilary Homer
www.location19.org

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Permalink Reply by Anthony Fasolo on September 3, 2009 at 9:01pm

Oh Hilary I so wish I could write letters like this! Thank you!

Anthony Fasolo

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Permalink Reply by Hilary Homer on September 4, 2009 at 2:41pm

Thank you, Anthony...it's a dying art I try to keep alive.

FYI everyone, Marcus & Solomon Associates is a New Jersey limited liability company. I have the corporate filing number from the NJ Secretary of State website, and hopefully I can use that to find a name to which a letter could be addressed. The address on the company's site is a street address in New Jersey, but there's no name associated with it.

I will let people know when I find out more. For now, since this company is not local and we don't know who is receiving our messages (or where), maybe it would be helpful to include a little bit of information about the 19th Ward and why we are so concerned about property maintenance when emailing.

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Permalink Reply by Shawn on September 4, 2009 at 3:02pm

Excellent Hillary! Thanks for digging the info up. I have a feeling we are going to be running into more of this as I do more focusing on Thurston Road. You seem to have a nack for this, would you like to help me with it?

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Permalink Reply by Hilary Homer on September 11, 2009 at 1:33pm

Sure I'll help. I think this campaign will be most effective if we contact both the local agents and officers of the property management companies, as local agents can be independent contractors. It can be quite difficult to figure out how these entities are organized and who's "in charge," and we won't always be able to, but I think there's also value in getting a better picture of how Thurston Road properties are being managed (i.e., are most of them managed or owned by out-of-state entities with few or no actual operations here, by large real estate management firms with branches or subsidiaries here, by local property owners or management companies, etc.)

I admittedly don't know very much about this industry and acceptable vs. unacceptable practices, but doing this may give us an idea of whether there are particular companies or types of companies whose properties are causing most of the problems. If that is the case, the NYS Attorney General is often interested to hear about that sort of thing.

I can keep a log of which companies we've contacted, what type of entities they are (LLC, partnership, etc.), where they're located/registered, etc.

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Permalink Reply by Hilary Homer on September 23, 2009 at 9:55am

Sorry I haven't made much progress here--I've been getting ready for a business trip where I have to give a big presentation and have sort of needed to focus on that.

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Permalink Reply by Shawn on September 23, 2009 at 10:01am

I know what you mean, I'm back in school. And between work I'm pretty busy. We will figure it out in time! :)
-Shawn

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Permalink Reply by Marian Boutet on September 6, 2009 at 10:23pm

The contact info for Marcus & Solomon Associates is:
Marcus & Solomon Associates, LLC
809 Maplehill Drive
Woodbridge, NJ 07095
(800)-275-3983

There are two separate addresses for the townhouses:
1-11 Penhurst Street, Rochester, NY 14619
357-359 Thurston Road, Rochester, NY 14619

In addition, there is some more information about the property at:
https://www.propertyware.com/pw/marketing/website.do?action=ViewBro...

There, it's listed as Thurston Court, and the owners appear to be:
Maya Associates, LLC
518-7 old Post Road
Edison, NJ 08817
Tel. (585) 415-0019 (NOTE THE 585 AREA CODE)
They list the leasing agent as:
Jeff Travis
Marcus & Solomon Associates, LLC
jeff@marcusandsolomonassociates.com
(800) 275-3983

Marian

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Permalink Reply by MacClurg Vivian on September 8, 2009 at 9:16am

thank you for this sleuthing...
Love
MacClurg

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Permalink Reply by Hilary Homer on September 11, 2009 at 12:55pm

Nice work, Marian!

I'm still very interested in finding someone at the director/officer level to contact, so I'll continue to look for that information. The New Jersey Secretary of State maintains this information but CHARGES for it.