THE MONDRIAN: HOME SWEET HELLHOLE

Consider this: If you were paying $10,000 a month in rent, would you want vomit and feces in your hallway? Keep reading. From today’s Park Cities People.

The High-Rise, High-Rent Dystopia
By Paige Phelps
Real Estate Editor

On the edge of the West Village stands an architectural wonder. Named after Piet Mondrian, the Dutch painter famous for geometric squares or “lozenges,” the 20-story apartment building appeals to the young, hip, and monied. But look inside, residents say, and you’ll see that The Mondrian is in shambles.

With rents from $1,569 to $10,000 a month, residents expected a top-notch experience. But what they got for their money was flooding, all-night parties, unresponsive management, broken pipes, lewd behavior, and vandalism. Then things got ugly when the pool turned green.

“I would go by the pool and it was green; there was a stench. And I’m talking, I was on the fourth level of the garage and I could smell it — it was actually green.”

The resident of The Mondrian, who asked not to be identified, said he and many residents of the West Village high-rise apartment building signed on early to the idea of urban living, but quickly found The Mondrian to be a high-priced nightmare.

“I could give you stories you wouldn’t believe,” the resident, who pays more than $2,000 a month in rent, said. “I want to live in a place where I can leave and go away and feel like I’m not going to have my door kicked down, you know, that all of a sudden I’m on an episode of ‘Cops.’”

Residents described The Mondrian, developed and managed by Florida-based Zom and touted as a darling of upper-end rental real estate, as a fraternity-style free-for-all with all-night keg parties and public sex.

Amenities promised when leases were signed have been cut. A perpetually broken elevator has forced tenants to hit the stairs up to their 16th floor apartments; windows leak; new appliances don’t work; parking is so bad residents must line up to get into the garage, and when they’re finally able to park, there’s a good chance the car will be burglarized.

In fact, police reports show that the 218-unit apartment building has been plagued by smash-and-grabs. Car burglaries occurred almost every day in December and are still an ongoing problem.

Records also show that in the last six months, the Dallas Fire Department was dispatched to The Mondrian 24 times — twice as often as other local apartment high-rises The Ashton, with 267-units, and the original West Village development, with 159-units, at nearby 3699 McKinney Ave.

“Here, you pay to be frustrated,” the resident said. “It is an absolute nightmare.”

Manager April West, who inherited the problem-laden property six months ago from former Zom staff, said that it will take time to rectify problems and build new relationships with tenants.

She cited lack of communication between the managers and maintenance staff, which led to the green pool, and said she is working to get more security cameras for every level of the parking garage.

West said that although The Mondrian used to be “a party place,” Zom no longer rents out empty units and penthouses for a nightly fee, hopefully curbing that reputation.

And as for the building’s leaky windows, West explained that those are construction issues out of her control.

“It’s been an ongoing thing, trying to get those people who built the building to come back out and work on those issues.

“We’re doing everything to get things back the way they were, back to normal,” she said.

Zom personnel at Orlando, Fla., corporate headquarters did not return phone calls, but did relay a message through a receptionist that Zom Asset Manager Peter Campfield had no comment. Zom’s Dallas office also did not return phone calls.

As for Mondrian retail tenants, the building and its management elicited mixed emotions. One shop owner, who asked to remain anonymous, said she was actually glad The Mondrian’s woes would be reported in a newspaper, while another, Petit Fours Cakes Gourmet owner Carolyn Key, said Zom management has been very helpful and responsive to her business.

“There seems to be a positive atmosphere among the retail people; I’ve not heard anything at all negative,” Key said.

Meanwhile, The Mondrian’s problems continue to haunt even former residents. Chris-James Cognetta said that he and partner Michael Saginaw plan to file a suit against Zom for breach of contract.

“We were charged with breaking the lease when in fact they broke it by not providing adequate services,” Cognetta said. He also said that he and Saginaw are considering filing a fair housing discrimination complaint because of obstacles the two encountered while living at the property.

“We have a pretty well documented history regarding our experiences with the management, the staff, and the tenants … as well as the impending legal action against Zom corporate and The Mondrian staff,” he wrote in an e-mail.
Police records show that Cognetta reported a car burglary on Dec. 11 while he was still a resident at the property.

Yet despite the bad news, Paul Wildes, director of the National Real Estate Index, said The Mondrian is not a lost cause.

“You’ve got prime property here,” he said, adding that the apartment market is hot nationwide but especially good in Dallas at the moment. Dallas properties are valued at about $134 per square foot in the metro area, which, for a 1,000-square-foot unit, totals about $134,000; nationwide the average is about $277,510.

“Depending on improvements needed, it could still, very much, be a very good property,” he said. “I don’t think anyone is going to junk it. A real estate investor there in Dallas might say, ‘let’s go in and fix it up.’”

For former Mondrian Leasing Agent Caroline Whitten, the only example she needs to illustrate the problems at the building was an anecdote from the residents’ October 2005 Halloween party.

“When the DJ announced, ‘hey, let’s give a hand to the managers,’ the residents booed,” she said. “I mean, it got so bad that the manager and manager’s assistant put their hands over their faces and walked out.”

E-mail paige@peoplenewspapers.com