MHS Golden Tornado Hall of Fame See page 8
Vol. 20, No. 13
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Friday, March 29, 2019
Altitude Apartments owners, AG settle allegations of discrimination By Barbara Taormina he owners of Altitude Apartments, aka Granada Highlands, have agreed to pay $600,000 to settle allegations that the company discriminated against applicants and tenants based on their race and whether they qualified for public assistance vouchers. Attorney General Maura Healey’s office announced last week that it had reached an agreement with Metropolitan Properties of America and its subsidiary, MPA Granada Highlands LLC, that settled allegations that the company violated fair housing, civil rights and consumer protection laws through discriminatory leasing policies and practices meant to limit apartment rentals to minority and low-income tenants. In addition to paying the $600,000, Metropolitan Properties must also update its housing and leasing policies and submit them to the AG’s office for approval. Once approved, the policies must be provided to all employees an-
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Metropolitan Properties of America, the owner of Altitude Apartments, has agreed to a $600,000 settlement stemming from allegations of racial and socioeconomic discrimination. (Courtesy Photo)
nually and must be available to all tenants. The settlement also requires that all Altitude Apartment employees complete an annual training on fair housing laws. Built during the 1970s by the Flatley Co., Granada Highlands was designed as a 919unit luxury apartment complex with all sorts of ameni-
ties that were new at the time. But over the years, the complex weathered several major economic downturns as well as changing housing trends. In 2007, Boston-based Metropolitan Properties, which owns and manages large multifamily residential properties along the East Coast and in the Midwest, bought Granada High-
lands for $181 million with the intent of hitching the property’s fortunes to Malden’s rising tide of revitalization. “When we purchased Granada Highlands, we saw it in much the same way we saw the city itself: ripe with potential but in need of investment,� wrote Metropolitan Properties CEO Jeffrey Cohen in a 2013
guest column that ran in several local newspapers as part of a major media campaign. “The firm that sold us the property was not from this area, and prioritized occupancy rates at the expense of quality construction and responding to shifts in the rental apartment market. That strategy had significant negative effects on the property’s facilities and the city of Malden as a whole,� wrote Cohen, who added that Metropolitan Properties had since spent more than $20 million to refurbish all 919 units and add a fitness center, saunas, a business center, a billiards and game room and a luxury media and theater room. But according to the AG’s office, Metropolitan Properties’ efforts to recapture Granada Highlands’ glory days and transform the complex into what the company defined as a “premier gated apartment community� involved “coordinated discriminatory practic-
ALTITUDE | SEE PAGE 19
National Grid agrees to replace gas mains By Barbara Taormina ast December, Ward 4 Councillor Ryan O’Malley was on Beacon Hill to submit testimony on Malden’s troubles with natural gas at a hearing of the Legislature’s Joint Committee on Telecommunications, Utilities and Energy
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scheduled to gather information on the safety of the state’s natural gas infrastructure. O’Malley described the manhole explosions at Main and Florence Streets on Dec. 18, 2016, the gas incident at Main and Clinton Streets last summer and the mismarking of a residential gas line on Hamlett Place last fall as examples of National Grid’s pattern of negligence toward the city’s natural gas infrastructure. “It is my belief that National Grid has failed to maintain a safe and reliable natural gas system,� said O’Malley in testimony submitted to the committee. And it looks like that trip to Boston paid off. O’Malley announced this week that as a result of that testimony and some advocating and negotiating by Mayor Gary Christenson, National Grid will replace more than a mile of gas mains on Main Street and adjacent streets in Ward 4. Hundreds of new gas connections to individual homes and businesses will be
installed as part of the project. of the oldest gas lines in the with fellow councillors on a According to notice from state, and good news for variety of issues. National Grid to residents and O’Malley, who must have “This is what true collaborabusiness owners, work is ex- been ready for a win after a tion and advocacy look like,� pected to start this month on couple of months of clashing he said. gas main replacement and relocation on Main Street from Clifton Street to the Melrose line. Mains will also be replaced on Vernon, Clinton and Edmund Streets, Winter Avenue and Greenwood Terrace. The work is being done as part of National Grid’s Proactive Main Replacement Program, which targets leakprone pipes according to factors such as the material the pipes are made of and their age. Work on the gas mains is expected to take 10 weeks. Once that part of the project is finished, National Grid will begin scheduling the installment of new hookups with residents and businesses who are National Grid customers. According to O’Malley, the project also includes repaving twothirds of a mile of roadway. Gasmap The project was good news National Grid will replace gas mains and repave roadway along for Malden, which has some Main Street and a handful of adjacent roads.