Once a squatter’s delight, Patriot Property points to success with Mattoon Street apts.

SPRINGFIELD — With new tenants set to move in May 1, this first-floor unit at 12-20 Mattoon St. still smells of paint and gleams with the gloss of freshly refinished floors.

There is still some construction dust. And a few horizontal slats are missing from the window blinds.

But the one-bedroom apartment — renting for $1,295 a month (studios there are $1,095) — is nearly ready, said Marc Murphy, property manager with Patriot Property Management Group of West Springfield.

“This is what we want to do: Provide a decent place to live for our residents,” Murphy said.

His company is seeking to provide a contrast, he said, between the state of Patriot Property’s 400 apartments in Springfield and conditions before his company bought the properties from oft-criticized Springfield Gardens with waves of transactions in August and September 2023.

Murphy invited The Republican along Monday with city housing, economic development and code enforcement officials on a brief tour of the two Mattoon Street properties.

Springfield Gardens — based in New Jersey — faced numerous code violations and Housing Court hearings amid security breaches, vagrancy, vacant apartments taken over by squatting drug dealers and — in the most stereotypical sign of blight — broken windows.

Patriot Property has spent about $500,000 repairing and upgrading both the 40-unit building at 12-20 Mattoon and the 27-unit building up the street at 66 Mattoon, Murphy said.

According to city records, a Patriot Property affiliate spent $3 million when it bought 12-20 Mattoon from Springfield Gardens in 2023. It spent $2.25 million to buy 66 Mattoon.

The need was great before Patriot Property got there, Murphy said.

“Nothing major was done,” Murphy said. “Old code violations left behind by the prior owner. Lighting and security were big things.”

A few days after the tour, without the landlord and his team in sight, residents at the two buildings and their neighbors in nearby apartments and condominiums mostly reacted with shrugs to the improvements and new owners. All lived at 66 Mattoon and 12-20 Mattoon when it was Springfield Gardens.

They like living there well enough, they said. None provided their names.

One neighbor cited improvement, saying there was a wave of people moving out and construction. It’s all quiet now. But he did recall a shooting in March 2023 that claimed a man’s life.

There have been many tenant changes, though. Just at 12-20 Mattoon alone, Patriot Property evicted 14 tenants and relocated another 15 tenants from the 40-unit building.

Patriot and its subsidiaries also have cases pending in Housing Court, largely evictions related to properties it owns a few miles away on Belmont Street.

Residents complained months ago about evictions on Mattoon Street.

Murphy said later by phone that he cannot comment on specific court cases. But in general, the same thing is happening on Belmont. Patriot is evicting residents either for nonpayment of rent or for other violations of the rental contract. Those other violations often boil down to tenant behavior or problems with apartment conditions.

On the tour, Murphy told city officials that there are just some tenants who had to go.

At 12-20 Mattoon St., the company renovated 29 units to improve living conditions and house more people. All told, Patriot Property took over 400 units of the 1,200 apartments Springfield Gardens once owned here.

“Our goal is to make renovations and upgrades,” he said. “Then march them to a new market rate.”

That means raising the rents at apartments that had been renting more cheaply than market prices in Springfield, such as charging $1,200 a month for a one-bedroom and $1,050 to $1,150 a month for a studio. That includes heat and hot water in most buildings.

Under Springfield Gardens, rents ran $900 and $1,000.

Of the Springfield Gardens properties Patriot took over, about 200 of units were technically vacant, Murphy said. But those vacant units actually had squatters.

Without proper security, people would be coming and going from the courtyard behind 12-20 Mattoon St. at all hours of the night, said nextdoor neighbor Patrick Johnson.

“If you hear that gate clang, it wakes up the whole house,” Johnson said.

A father with three children all under the age of 4, he was disturbed by criminal activity next door in 12-20 Mattoon.

And he lost tenants who’d rented in his own property next door at 24 Mattoon. His renters left because of conditions at 12-20 Mattoon.

“They were not used to living in that kind of environment,” he said.

Now, the foot traffic has died down, he said. Open drug use is less common. There are fewer people hanging around.

“You are still in downtown Springfield,” he said. “You are going to see things. But it’s not like it was.”

He used to see people headed regularly to 12-20 Mattoon.

“And they didn’t live there,” Johnson said.

Today, it’s quieter and cleaner. “It feels like home,” Johnson said.

Judith A. Matt, president of the Spirit of Springfield and a neighbor involved in Mattoon Street Historic Preservation Association, said the foot traffic on the block has reset to what one would expect on a normal city street. Before two years ago, there would have been a noticeable stream of people headed to 12-20 Mattoon.

“Since they came, the change has been night and day,” Matt said.

The city police officers responsible for that neighborhood had much the same things to say, according to police spokesman Ryan Walsh.

“It’s a 180 from Springfield Gardens,” Walsh wrote in an emailed response to questions. “Since the new managers are local, their response time is immediate, as opposed to waiting days or weeks. Our metro officers meet with them fairly regularly.”

Besides securing the gates, Walsh said Patriot Property provides access codes for officers to do foot patrols in the alleyways.

Mark E. Hebert, the city’s deputy building commissioner in charge of community outreach, went along on the tour. He said there has been improvement.

“Yes, very noticeably fewer violations with the new management and owner,” he said.

In June 2023, housing aid agency Way Finders was withholding federal housing subsidies from Springfield Gardens over concerns that conditions were unlivable.

This week, Way Finders President and CEO Keith Fairey said Way Finder’s experience with Patriot Property has been positive, and the agency hasn’t had any problems or quality concerns.

Springfield Housing Director Geraldine McCafferty said Patriot Property is good at managing its buildings.

“I’m impressed with the management,” she said. “It’s a strong improvement.”

But the improvements might not be enough to meet the city’s housing needs in the future. More extensive renovations, perhaps even reconstruction, are needed, she noted.

“There are a lot of very aged apartment blocks in Springfield,” she said. “Eventually we would like to see them significantly redeveloped.”

She pointed to the work of WinnDevelopment at 31 Elm or the changes at the old Chestnut towers when it became Skyview Downtown.

One thing Patriot Property did do is get the units with squatters back into the pool of available housing.

McCafferty said she noticed a loosening of the market once those apartments were offered for rent again. Springfield has a shortage of smaller apartments, one bedroom and studios; it’s a national trend driven by the increase in one- and two-person households.

Local rents have spiked since COVID-19, McCafferty said. That’s driven in part by Springfield Gardens taking so many units out of service, which makes apartments more scarce.

Also, when Springfield Gardens sold, buyers including Patriot Property paid a higher price for the buildings and thus needed to charge more.