Southern Towers

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Senators Warner and Kaine task Southern Towers owners to resolve eviction conflict with residents

By James Cullum
The Sherwood apartment building at Southern Towers in Alexandria's West End. (Staff photo by James Cullum)

(Updated at 11 a.m. on June 29) U.S. Senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine sent a letter to CIM Group highlighting the concerns of residents regarding evictions, increased rents and living conditions at their Southern Towers Apartments complex.

In a letter Monday, the Virginia Democrats urged the building owner to resolve long standing disputes with residents. Since buying the property at the height of the pandemic in 2020, residents have protested against evictions, claiming that CIM Group has raised rents and evicted hundreds of residents from deteriorating properties.

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Notes: It’s the last week of school in Alexandria

By ALXnow.com

Good Monday morning, Alexandria!

⛈️ Today’s weather: A chance of showers and thunderstorms, then showers and possibly a thunderstorm after 8am. High near 79. South wind 11 to 13 mph, with gusts as high as 21 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%. New rainfall amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible. At night: A chance of showers and thunderstorms before 11pm, then a slight chance of showers between 11pm and 2am. Mostly cloudy, then gradually becoming mostly clear, with a low around 60. Northwest wind 6 to 9 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%.

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News

Southern Towers gets a visit from the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency

By James Cullum
A protest at Southern Towers in the West End on Thursday, Dec. 10, 2020 (Staff photo by James Cullum)

The Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency visited Southern Towers in the West End this week, signalling to housing advocates that years of protests against rent hikes and evictions are finally paying off.

On Wednesday, FHFA Director Sandra Thompson toured the 2,261-unit Southern Towers complex at 4901 Seminary Road. The tour was hosted by the People’s Actions Homes Guarantee campaign and African Communities Together (ACT), and the groups say that affordable housing residents are at the mercy of a major private equity landlord that only cares about profit. The groups say that since buying the property at the height of the pandemic in 2020, California-based owner CIM Group has evicted more than 250 residents, and that many of them endured uninhabitable conditions and rent increases.

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News

Legislative discussion highlights Alexandrians’ struggle with rising rents

By Vernon Miles
Organizers outside Southern Towers lead residents in a protest against CIM Group (staff photo by Vernon Miles)

As the City of Alexandria gets ready to kick off its advocacy for the upcoming general assembly session, one of the main talking points is how the city could use more help from the state in handling affordable housing.

Meronne Teklu, speaking on behalf of the Economic Opportunities Commission, the Landlord-Tenant Relations Board and the Alexandria Housing Affordability Advisory Committee, told the City Council this weekend that each of the groups expressed concerns about the rising rate of evictions.

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Southern Towers residents and activists protest rent increases and lingering health issues

By Vernon Miles
Organizers outside Southern Towers lead residents in a protest against CIM Group (staff photo by Vernon Miles)

At a rally outside Southern Towers (4901 Seminary Road), residents and community activists shared stories of rent increases and poor living conditions, shouting slogans against property owner CIM Group.

CIM Group purchased the buildings in 2020. Relations between tenants and owners were already fraught after the pandemic left many residents in Southern Towers — one of the last bastions of market-rate affordable housing in Alexandria — without work. Since then, community activists have raced to try and support residents facing eviction after pandemic-related protections expired.

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City officials say out of date West End and Beauregard Street plans need to be reworked

By Vernon Miles
The Sherwood apartment building at Southern Towers in Alexandria's West End. (Staff photo by James Cullum)

As part of a yearly look at the city’s long-term plans, city staff says plans for the West End are in dire need of an update.

A memo prepared by Director of Planning Karl Moritz said the city’s West End plans are out of date by a couple decades. The memo is part of a plan update scheduled for review at the Tuesday, June 7 Planning Commission meeting (Item 7).

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Resident advocacy group racing against time to prevent wave of Southern Towers evictions

By Vernon Miles
Southern Towers residents wait for the bus. (Staff photo by James Cullum)

With a potential wave of evictions incoming next month, a group representing tenants of Southern Towers is trying to indirectly pressure the building’s owner into giving residents a reprieve.

The 2,261-unit Southern Towers complex at 4901 Seminary Road is one of the last bastions of market-rate affordable housing — housing that’s affordable without being set at a certain level by agreement with the local government. The West End building was purchased in 2020 by California-based real estate company CIM Group.

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News

Southern Towers residents nervous as landlord steps up eviction proceedings

By Vernon Miles

Low-income residents at Southern Towers (4901 Seminary Road) in the West End have been among those most affected by historic highs in unemployment and a sluggish economic recovery — but on-top of this, many of the residents face a new problem: a landlord pursuing hundreds of evictions.

At a meeting today between residents and elected officials, several immigrants living one of the city’s few remaining bastions of market rate affordable housing shared a sense of uncertainty and fear as new landlord CIM Group begins taking legal actions against residents.

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Alexandria Man Jailed for Receiving Stolen Handgun and Resisting Arrest in West End

By James Cullum
Alexandria Police lights (staff photo by James Cullum)

A 22-year-old Alexandria man was arrested last month for receiving a stolen firearm and resisting arrest in the West End.

The man was arrested on Nov. 24 after police responded to a call that a suspect walked into the 7-Eleven store at 4949 Seminary Road in the Southern Towers apartment complex, brandished a handgun and allegedly stated that “he would kill everyone,” according to a police search warrant affidavit.

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What Does Southern Towers’ Acquisition by CIM Group Mean for Alexandria Affordable Housing?

By Vernon Miles
Southern Towers residents wait for the bus. (Staff photo by James Cullum)

Real estate investment company CIM Group recently purchased large apartment community Southern Towers, Costar first reported, but what’s unclear now is what that means for affordable housing in the city’s West End.

Southern Towers is a 2,261-unit apartment complex that is one of the city’s last large bastions of market-rate affordable and committed affordable units — units that are required to remain at a certain affordability. Helen McIlvaine, director of the city’s Office of Housing, said Southern Towers has 105 committed affordable units that were mostly established in the mid-2010s.

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