Owners of Latitude Five25 fined $20 million for asbestos contamination
COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) -- The owners and property manager of an uninhabitable pair of apartment towers on Columbus' East Side will likely be fined nearly $20 million for improperly handling asbestos.
A Franklin County magistrate has recommended a $19.8 million fine for the owners and property manager of Latitude Five25, a 400-unit apartment complex on Sawyer Boulevard. The apartments have been vacant since tenants were evacuated in December 2022, but the asbestos contamination happened after, when the owners attempted to renovate the property.
On Christmas Day 2022, the city ordered residents to vacate the property due to burst water pipes and a lack of heat. Paxe Latitude, the company that owns the towers, and management company Aloft Management failed to have an asbestos survey completed for the work area before contractors started renovating, according to court filings.
The owners ignored their own plans that advised against making water damage repairs without assessing for asbestos first, the court found. Workers were not provided with proper protective equipment and did not establish an asbestos containment procedure before removing drywall, tearing up carpet and tearing down ceiling tiles.
"Photos admitted into evidence showed that debris was often dumped on the floor during the work, with no care taken to avoid dropping or limiting the spread of the asbestos-containing material," the magistrate's recommendation read.
For eight days, workers handled asbestos without proper equipment, discarded asbestos debris in open-air dumpsters, and used fans that circulated the asbestos throughout the buildings. An Ohio EPA inspector, who came at the request of city code enforcement, ordered an immediate stop to work.
But after a licensed asbestos hazard abatement contractor decontaminated the site, the building was contaminated again by workers who, at the owners' direction, tore through barriers to enter still-contaminated areas, the court found. A lack of proper security meant the complex was burglarized and trespassed multiple times, meaning more asbestos spread throughout the site and surrounding area.
The failure to limit asbestos spread means that former tenants of Latitude Five25 will never be able to return to their apartments and retrieve remaining belongings, Magistrate Jennifer Hunt wrote in her recommendation. Further, cloth and porous material -- including clothes, mattresses, linens, and some furniture -- cannot be decontaminated.
"As a direct result of Defendants’ failure to limit the spread of asbestos, over 160 tenants must now rebuild their lives in a new location with new clothes, furniture, and other possessions," Hunt wrote.
In addition to fining Paxe Latitude and Aloft, the magistrate fined Boruch Drillman, the majority owner of Paxe Latitude. Hunt noted that Drillman was a "wealthy man" who was the principal investor in the company's purchase of the property -- and personally secured a $16 million loan to do so.
"Mr. Drillman and Paxe, the company he controlled, both had the means to avoid these violations but chose not to comply with the law," Hunt wrote. "Given the severity of the violations and the consequences of those violations, the facts of this case warrant the maximum penalty allowed by law."
Hunt's recommendation awaits final approval by a judge.
The pair of towers, visible from Interstates 670 and 71, had been under the city’s scrutiny long before that for repeated bug infestations, feces-contaminated stairwells and other unsanitary conditions.
Last February, a judge ordered the Paxe Latitude to pay nearly $4.4 million in fines and outstanding utility fees, including $2.5 million to compensate the former tenants. The court also found that in trying to rehabilitate the building, the owners hired contractors who didn’t comply with law or industry standards when handling asbestos, leaving many residents’ belongings contaminated with the cancerous fibers.
The owners, who launched a failed bankruptcy claim in New Jersey, never paid the $2.5 million contempt fee. In January, the lender financing the owners of the Latitude Five25 apartments entered into a $1.5 million settlement with the city in lieu of paying the $2.5 million. That money is intended for former tenants.
The complex is currently for sale to an experienced renovator.