ASHLAND — The Essex House in downtown Ashland, a low-income apartment building, is under new ownership and could soon become market-rate units.
Matt Wurster, 42, closed on the apartment building on June 26. County real estate records show Essex House Ashland, LLC, bought the building for $285,000.
The 45-unit building has served as a low-income housing development since 1995, according to records from the Ohio Housing Finance Agency.
That’s when the former owner — George Fred Schwab — received a loan through the federal Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) program.
LIHTC-financed developments must keep the units rent restricted and available to low-income tenants for at least 30 years.
That period is set to expire in 2027, according to a spokeswoman from the Ohio Housing Finance Agency (OHFA).
And then what?
“At that point, when the period expires, the program ends. And then the (Essex House) will just become more market-rate apartments,” Wurster said.
That means the residents living there currently could see their monthly rents increase. State law requires Essex House rents to increase annually, but they currently sit at around $450, according to Wurster.
That’s about half of the average for Ashland.
But there’s a trade-off.
The new owner plans to make significant repairs to the building in the coming weeks and months, including a new roof, windows, cooling system and needed elevator repairs.
Wurster operates Aspen Management, a property management company that manages around 2,500 units in Ohio, Indiana, West Virginia and Kentucky.
“Multi-family housing is what we do,” he said.
Wurster was behind the renovation of the Ohio Fire building in downtown Ashland. He no longer owns that building, but he owns the Wagon Wheel and South Street Grille buildings.
He said Ashland Mayor Matt Miller reached out to him with the opportunity to improve the building’s situation.
“I was born and raised in Ashland, so I’ve heard about the heartaches from the people living there — I’ve read the articles,” he said. “I thought it would be a good opportunity. I have experience in rehabbing old buildings.”
Maintenance issues plagued Essex House
Miller said Essex House residents have struggled with maintenance issues there for several years. There have been winters where some units go without heat, and summers where some residents go without air conditioning.
“There were different time periods where the elevator wasn’t working,” he said, adding the inconsistency poses a safety dilemma for residents with mobility issues.
In the winter months of 2023 and 2024, the elevator was inoperable for 13 days — essentially confining five residents to their rooms until it got fixed.
State inspection records show the elevator, installed March 1997, was last inspected in November 2024. The inspection found the Essex House owner needed to “restore 2-way/ 24-hour voice communications (telephone) within the cab enclosure.”
Wurster said fixing the elevator for good is on tap, along with repairing the leaky roof. He said there are units on the top floor that are actively leaking from the ceilings. There’s also an inoperable cooling system.
“That cooling system hasn’t been working for years,” he said. “I’ve been monitoring it, and I’ve seen temperatures at excess of 100 degrees in the hallways. It’s pretty tough living conditions in the summer. And I feel for them. That’s why those things are top of the list (to get fixed).”
Wurster said fixing the roof is first up — and it will require closing down part of Center Street.
“We’ll need a crane to lift roofing materials up there,” he said. The project is tentatively scheduled to begin in August.
The same section of road will be closed off again when a crane is used to replace the building’s cooling system. That project is scheduled for sometime in September, he said.
Miller said he is excited for the new ownership of the building.
“This is actually a very good development in the Essex House situation,” he said. “It will be renovated and owned by someone who actually lives here and calls Ashland home.”
Affordable housing vs. market-rate: ‘It’s up to the property owner’
Schwab, the former owner, received an allocation of 9% Low-Income Housing Tax Credits in 1995.
The program, governed by the Internal Revenue Service, was created in 1986 to stimulate development of affordable rental housing. Though federally run, the program is administered through state housing credit agencies.
The OHFA allocates these funds to facilitate the development of this type of housing.
State data shows the Essex House development received $179,482 worth in housing tax credits annually for 10 years.
Penny Martin, director of public affairs for OHFA, said the Essex House became eligible for the housing tax credits in 1995.
But “the property was placed in service in 1997, which means that the 30-year affordability period ends in 2027,” she said.
When that period ends, Martin said it’s up to the current owner to apply for an extension of the affordability period or to make the apartments a “market-rate property.”
“It’s up to the property owner,” Martin said.