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| Big, bad Citi: A Map of Allegations against CitiApartments
SF Magazine Article, December 2009-- Around San Francisco, few individuals or institutions stir up the kind of strong feelings that the Lembis’ CitiApartments does. A lawsuit by the city attorney’s office demonstrates why. Citi denied any wrongdoing, saying the suit mixed up its facts and that tenants were disgruntled because of attempts to evict them for perfectly legal reasons. Here are some of the allegations. |
| War of values
SF Magazine Article by Danelle Morton: December 2009-- An epic battle has been raging over who can afford to live in San Francisco. The paper trail reveals that the city’s dominant landlords, the Lembi family of CitiApartments fame, bought up every building they could get their hands on, from the Tenderloin’s rattiest dumps to Nob Hill’s ritziest penthouses, with an audacious plan to drive up everyone’s rent. And their money came from the same financial geniuses who brought the world economy to its knees. |
| Debt swamping Lembi Group, big S.F. landlord
San Francisco Chronicle article by Andrew S. Ross: Wednesday, September 9, 2009- One of San Francisco's biggest landlords is disappearing beneath waves of debt. Defaults, receiverships and foreclosures are threatening to sink Lembi Group Inc., which in the not-so-distant past owned more than 300 apartment buildings containing approximately 7,000 units throughout the city. |
| The future of a giant landlord
SF Bay Guardian, Opinion Piece by Jane Martin, Wed Feb 11 2009: In the past few years, tenant organizing has brought attention to CitiApartments' aggressive tactics and put a kink in the company's plans. |
| Renters fight back: Tenants of CitiApartments fill the gilded dome with complaints
in the SF Bay Guardian, by G.W. Schulz 5/14/2008- A stream of perturbed tenants living in buildings owned by one of the city's largest landlords, CitiApartments, Inc., converged on City Hall May 12 to testify that in recent years the company has engaged in an alleged campaign of intimidation and harassment against residents living in rent-controlled units. |
| No Scarcity of Tenant Horror Stories
on BeyondChron, by Tommi Mecca, May 14 2008- They came to tell their horror stories to members of the Land Use Committee of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. They were tenants from units owned by Skyline/Citi Apartments, an outfit that has been rapidly acquiring rent-controlled property in San Francisco... |
| CitiApartments' conduct comes under fire-- again
From the Examiner, by Joshua Sabatini, May 13, 2008- One of San Francisco's largest landlords and apartment-management companies continues to purchase property and garner complaints from tenants despite a lawsuit filed by The City two years ago charging that it uses strong-arm tactics to force residents out of rent-controlled apartments.
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| Lembis's San Francisco Sale Stirs Up Some Questions
The Wall Street Journal Online- by Jonathan Karp; February 21, 2008: After five years as the most aggressive buyer of apartment buildings in San Francisco, the Lembi family has -- for now -- become the city's biggest seller...
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| Lembis end apartment buying spree: 17 buildings go on the block
San Francisco Business Times - by J.K. Dineen, Friday, February 1, 2008: The Lembi family, long the city's most aggressive buyer of apartment complexes, has put 17 buildings on the market, signaling a possible end to several years of nearly continuous acquisitions... |
| Lembis pump $200M into growing housing empire
San Francisco Business Times - by J.K. Dineen, Friday, July 13, 2007: Embattled San Francisco apartment kingpins Frank and Walter Lembi went on another spending spree in April and May, shelling out about $200 million for 27 multi-family buildings, according to a data culled from reports of Old Republic Title Co... |
| Ben Franklin owner linked to S.F. lawsuit
Oakland Tribune, by Aaron Kinney 4/20/2007; Two sister companies of CitiSuites, the real estate outfit that bought the Benjamin Franklin Hotel in February, are slowly moving toward trial in San Francisco, where the city attorney has charged them with numerous counts of illegal business practices. |
| CitiApartments fattens up S.F. rental portfolio
SF Business Times, by J.K. Dineen 12/15/2006; CitiApartments, San Francisco's largest landlord, gobbled up 10 apartment buildings in November, a $35 million spending spree that City Attorney Dennis Herrera said underscores his accusations that the company's aggressive approach constitutes unfair business practices... |
| Herrera files suit against Skyline
Bay Area Reporter, by Rob Akers 8/24/2006; Skyline Realty and CitiApartments' legal woes continued last week after San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera filed a lawsuit alleging a pattern of unlawful and unfair business practices including multiple violations of state and local laws, one of which involves misuse of the city housing code... |
| City sues "scumlords"
SF Bay Guardian, by G.W. Schulz 8/22/2006; Five months after the Guardian published a three-part series on one of the city's biggest landlords — Skyline Realty, a.k.a. CitiApartments — City Attorney Dennis Herrera announced a multimillion-dollar lawsuit against the company, alleging an "egregious pattern of unlawful and unfair business practices."
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| Tenants tell of armed intimidation
The Examiner, by Adam Martin 8/18/2006; One of The City’s largest landlords, CitiApartments, allegedly employs armed men to intimidate renters, a series of lawsuits filed against the company claims. |
| S.F. sues major residential rental firm
The Examiner- by Adam Martin, August 17, 2006: One of The City’s largest residential rental companies has been slapped with a lawsuit alleging it intimidates renters, illegally refurbishes apartments and cheats The City out of fees...
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