Contractors have begun working at The Ridge Apartments, 420 Lake Hill Drive, to bring it up to city code.
Chuck Parker, its owner, is working to improve the complex’s buildings and have it removed from under the city’s slum clearance designation.
“I’m taking care of the problems that need taking care of,” Parker, of Horn Lake, said as he supervised work at the apartment complex late Wednesday morning.
The Ridge Apartments and Whispering Woods Apartments were placed under the city’s slum clearance ordinance in late December. City community development officials held a hearing on the The Ridge Apartments Jan. 26, and Parker presented a plan for renovating and improving the apartments.
“He presented a bound plan that addressed everything we cited, and provided a timeline for the repairs,” community director Victor Grey-Lewis said. “I think he’s going to stick to his plan and his schedule. He seems to want to do what’s right. His situation is not as bad as Whispering Woods.”
“The city seems to be happy with what we’re doing,” Parker said. “The city gave us seven months, but I believe we’re going to be ahead of that.”
Parker said the only problem he is having is vandalism caused by youths from a nearby complex, who he said are damaging areas soon after they are repaired. He said city officials have offered to help him with the problem.
Grey-Lewis said he has not heard from officials with Whispering Woods.
City officials met with representatives for Whispering Woods Jan. 4, and rejected a rehabilitation plan proposed by Whispering Woods LLC, a Delaware-based holding company with offices in Florida that owns the complex, because it lacked sufficient information. Company officials were given 60 days to submit an amended plan. They have about 30 days remaining, Grey-Lewis said.
According to the order rejecting the plan, company officials did not include a construction schedule with projected start and completion dates; a cost estimate of the entire plan, including upgrading fire protection; and proof the project can be 100 percent financed and the funds are available for the project.