INDIANAPOLIS — JPC Affordable Housing has closed the sale of one of four apartment complexes after a legal battle over nearly $2 million in unpaid utility bills.
The city of Indianapolis confirms it received payment for the sale of Berkley Commons.
The settlement came from a 3-way lawsuit with the city, Attorney General's office and Citizens Energy against the owners. The properties must sell by December 31. New management with no ties to previous owners must take over.
A city spokesperson said:
“The sale of Berkley Commons has closed, and the City has received the payment it was guaranteed under its settlement agreement as part of that transaction. The sale of the other three JPC properties—Capital Place, Woods at Oak Crossing, and Covington Square—has not yet closed. We understand that the parties to the transaction are working through some remaining issues, with an intention of closing, if those remaining issues are resolved, by January. The City is monitoring the situation and intends to hold the current owner to the commitments that were made as part of the settlement agreement. While the City has granted a short one-month extension on the current closing deadline of December 31, it will not agree to dismiss its lawsuit against Berkley Commons and JPC until all four properties are out of the hands of the current owners and the City has received the payments to which it is entitled under the settlement agreement.”
On December 20th, a Citizens Energy spokesperson told WRTV they recently received $470,219.52 from the proceeds of the complex sale to apply toward the outstanding utility bill amount for the Berkley Commons property.
PAST | Berkley Commons apartment complex sold, Citizens Energy receives debt payment
"JPC had made a preliminary payment of $314,527.49 to Citizens soon after the settlement agreement was signed this past summer, and has also stayed current on the utility bills for water, gas and sewer service at its properties.," Citizens said. "Throughout the past two years, Citizens’ primary goals have been to prevent utility disruption to the JPC apartment residents and to protect our customer base from bearing the full cost of JPC’s mounting debt. We are pleased we are now approaching a final resolution of JPC’s debt."
