Tenants at the Birchwood Arms, a 64-unit apartment building in Riverside Heights that has housed renters for more than 40 years, are fighting a plan by the building's new owner to convert it into condominiums, a move that would require most current residents to either buy their units or vacate within 18 months under the terms of the state's conversion law.
Tenants at the Birchwood Arms, a 64-unit apartment building in Riverside Heights that has housed renters for more than 40 years, are fighting a plan by the building’s new owner to convert it into condominiums, a move that would require most current residents to either buy their units or vacate within 18 months under the terms of the state’s conversion law.
The building was purchased eight months ago by Ashgrove Capital Partners, an investment firm that has acquired several older apartment buildings across the metro area in recent years. Under the proposed conversion, existing tenants would be offered a first right to purchase their units at prices the company says will be below appraised market value, though tenant organizers dispute that the discounted prices are actually affordable to most current residents.
A retirement community worried about being priced out
“Half the people in this building are retired,” said Constance Villanueva, a 71-year-old Birchwood Arms tenant who has lived there for 22 years and helped organize a tenants’ committee after the conversion notice went out. “You can offer me a discount on a mortgage, but if I’m living on a fixed income, a discount doesn’t change the fact that I can’t get one.”
Villanueva said roughly a third of the building’s residents are over 65, and many told the tenants’ committee they have no realistic path to qualifying for a mortgage even at the reduced insider price Ashgrove has offered, which the company lists at $189,000 for a one-bedroom unit against an appraised value of $235,000.
Ashgrove Capital Partners representative Todd Milanese said the company’s offer exceeds what state law requires and includes a relocation assistance payment of $4,500 for any tenant who chooses not to buy, along with a 90-day extension on the standard notice period. “We understand this is disruptive, and we built our terms to go beyond the legal minimum,” Milanese said. “But we also have to be honest that this building needs significant capital investment, and condo conversion is how that investment gets financed.”
Nobody is disputing that the building needs new plumbing. What we’re disputing is that the only way to pay for it is to force out the people who’ve lived here for decades.
Constance Villanueva, Birchwood Arms tenant and tenants’ committee organizer
City Council Member Aisha Muhammad, who represents Riverside Heights and has separately pushed for stronger affordable-housing terms on the neighborhood’s contested riverfront rezoning proposal, said the Birchwood Arms situation illustrates a different kind of displacement pressure than new construction creates. “New buildings raise the question of who gets to move in,” Muhammad said. “This raises the question of who gets forced out of somewhere they already live. Those are both housing crises, but they need different tools.”
City’s conversion ordinance faces its first real test
The city’s condo-conversion ordinance, passed several years ago but rarely invoked until now, requires the extended notice period and a right of first refusal for existing tenants, but does not cap the sale price a converting owner can charge. Muhammad said she is now examining whether the ordinance needs price caps or expanded relocation assistance, calling Birchwood Arms “the first case that’s really tested what our existing rules can and can’t do.”
Milanese said Ashgrove is complying fully with the existing ordinance and would oppose any retroactive changes applied to the Birchwood Arms conversion specifically, though he said the company would not object to the city considering new rules for future conversions.
- 64 total units at Birchwood Arms; roughly a third of residents are over 65
- Insider purchase price offered: $189,000 for a one-bedroom, against a $235,000 appraised value
- Tenants who don’t buy: $4,500 relocation payment and a 90-day extension on the standard notice period
Gloria Reyes of the Wentworth County Legal Aid Society, which is separately involved in the Lowertown eviction cases making headlines this year, said her office has begun fielding calls from Birchwood Arms tenants seeking help understanding their rights under the conversion law. “The building isn’t in Lowertown, and the tenants aren’t facing eviction filings,” Castillo said. “But the underlying fear is the same: losing your home because of a decision made by someone who bought the building, not because of anything you did.”
Villanueva said the tenants’ committee has retained an attorney and is exploring whether to challenge the appraisal Ashgrove used to set purchase prices, arguing it does not reflect the building’s deferred maintenance. She said the committee’s immediate goal is simply to buy time. “We’re not naive enough to think we can stop this building from ever becoming condos,” she said. “But eighteen months isn’t enough time for people my age to figure out where we go next, and that’s what we’re fighting for right now.”
Milanese said Ashgrove remains open to further conversations with the tenants’ committee about timeline adjustments but said the company intends to proceed with the conversion process as filed. A public comment period on the conversion filing remains open for another month before the city’s housing office issues a final determination on compliance.