Large and small property managers take a bite out of crime

COLUMBIA, 10/19/12 (Beat Byte) -- Assaults, gun violence, SWAT busts, kidnapping, forgery, drug dealers, child pornographers. That was Columbia's Sodom-on-the-Hinkson, the former Gatehouse Apartments on Broadway. It kept police arresting, bailers bonding, and courts releasing day in and day out.

Not anymore. St. Louis-based Mills Properties purchased Gatehouse as part of a roughly 1,000 unit receivorship deal in 2010. Under a new name, new ownership, and complex-wide renovations, crime has plummeted, giving neighbors and law enforcement an overdue sigh of relief.

Mills Properties is among eight nominees for two first-time ever crime-free housing awards in conjunction with this year's Landlords Against Crime town hall summit: Most Successful Crime-Free Housing Strategy and Best Crime-Free Housing Success Story of 2012.
 
Nominees -- and winners -- are chosen based on arrest, outstanding warrant, and law enforcement call-for-service records related to their properties, before and after new strategies, new ownership, or during consistent, long-time crime-free housing practices.
 
The 2012 crime-free housing award nominees are:
 
Kirk Mills, president
 
Philip and Denice Warnken, owners
 
Phil Steinhaus, CEO
 
Columbia Square Apartments
Clifton Cohn, chairman; Jonathan Cohn, CEO

A.Ziv Property Management
Amir Ziv, owner
 
Hostetler Properties
Lynn Hostetler, owner
 
Michael Jones Properties
Michael Jones, owner
 
Roni Martin, manager
 
 
Recipients of the awards -- designed by Collegiate Awards on Buttonwood Drive -- will be announced at the Landlords Against Crime 2012 summit, October 25 at Parkade Center on the Business Loop, 7 pm.

The event is free and the public is invited to attend and participate.