The duplex at 253 Marston.
Garlin Gilchrist II, running for lieutenant governor on Gretchen Whitmer's ticket, faces embarrassing coverage -- and a new Republican campaign video -- with less than a month to go before the Nov. 6 election.
City officials now say he is at risk of losing a fire-damaged North End duplex he bought from the city if he doesn't clean up the property by Monday, Louids Aguilar of The Detroit News reports.
The controversy arose after a Friday column by Charlie LeDuff in Deadline Detroit which points out that Gilchrist purchased a delapidated home at 253 Marston St. from the Detroit Land Bank that has angered neighbors. It's half a block west of Brush Street between East Euclid and Chandler streets.
LeDuff writes:
The rotting building hulks next to another occupied duplex. Mattresses molder in the Deuce's back yard. The sewage trench in the back is a yawning gape. It has no back door. Some windows are boarded up. Bricks and plywood litter the front yard. The grass is unmowed. The walls inside are stripped to the studs.
The North End area. (Mapquest satellite image)
The News reports:
Usually, the buyer must repair and have the property occupied within six months, according to land bank rules. But because Gilchrist bought a larger property, an eight-unit apartment building, compared to a single-family home usually sold by the land bank, he has been given more time to do repairs, said land bank spokeswoman Alyssa Strickland late Friday.
Still, the land bank "finds the current condition of the exterior ... to be unacceptable..."
"If Mr. Gilchrist fails to provide the requested evidence of clean-up at his property, the Detroit Land Bank Authority will issue a notice of reconveyance," the statement said, which means the city agency will take back the property.
In response to LeDuff's commentary, Gilchrist issued a statement Friday that says, in part:
Two years after my family moved back to Detroit, I purchased the apartment building on Marston. I planned to rehabilitate the property from its significant fire damage and rent out its eight, one-bedroom apartments. I committed to this project because North End has personal significance to my childhood.
I have been working to secure financing for the project since purchasing it because I knew significant work needed to be done. Because I wanted to begin quickly, I began to deal with the building’s immediate problems and work to make it structurally sound before finalizing that financing.
I exhausted my personal resources to demolish the building interior, remove the collapsing rear balcony and staircase, repair the significant damage to the leaking roof, install main line plumbing, install new windows, and level the building by raising it eight inches. I also hired an architect to draw plans for the building and initiate the permitting process for construction.
Atty. Gen. Bill Schuette, the GOP gubernatorial candidate, raised the issue about Gilchrist's home during a debate with opponent Gretchen Whitmer in Grand Rapids on Friday evening. He also taped a video in front of the blight site:
@gretchenwhitmer's first big choice was picking @garlin, despite thousands in elections fines. Now he's ignored warnings for his rotting rental officials say is a threat to the kids we saw riding bikes. He can't manage this or Michigan. Gilchrist should resign from the ticket. pic.twitter.com/SBBEsQUXCw
— Bill Schuette (@SchuetteOnDuty) October 13, 2018
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