In February, Troy Student Housing, a doing business as of Titan Student Communities, LLC, assumed management responsibilities for several apartments leased to students around campus. The management responsibilities were assumed from that of RPI Rentals, LLC, with whom several students and alumni had negative experiences. This has made many doubt that anything would be different with the new management company and led, among other things, to the Student Senate banning them from advertising in the Rensselaer Union to the Poly’s editorial board placing a stop on their advertising. White concerns still exist among some, our investigation has shown that they are two seperate companies.
A letter sent to renters from Christian Alexander, regional property manager for Titan Student Communities, assured them that they “are not the same organization [as RPI Rentals] in any way shape or form.” Titan Student Communities is a limited liability company filed in Delaware that is based out of Carbondale, Ill., near Southern Illinois University Carbondale. RPI Rentals, on the other hand, was a limited liability company filed in Iowa.
In a letter sent to both The Poly and Statler and Waldorf Alexander said that the 14 properties they assumed management responsibilities for “are now under new management and new ownership.”
Jun Mori, a partner in TSC, explained that while the closing has taken place on the properties, the deeds “have not been filed yet” with the county clerk’s office. He explained that the property transfer is a multi-million dollar contract and there are many sellers and thus it takes time. He said, though, that the “sellers are no longer involved in any way” with the properties for official reasons such as taxes. He said there has been a delay with one of the properties, however, due to a contentious zoning issue.
Indeed, the deeds for the individual properties being rented by Troy Student Housing are still listed as having their original owners. With the exception of three properties, all of them are owned by Maximus Yaney, Jonathan Yaney, or Anastasia Federova.
Federova is the name listed as the “registered agent” on the RPI Rentals, LLC, record in Iowa, and Maximus Yaney also worked for the company. Letters received by The Poly from an attorney representing RPI Rentals stated that RPI Rentals, LLC “was never the owner of the apartment units.” According to county records, though, one property was even directly listed as being owned by RPI Rentals. Alexander said the propreties would eventually show up as being “Troy Property Group, LLC” and “Horizon Terrace, LLC.”
The written statements from Titan Student Communities also say, “We, nor any of our staff (with the exception of those individuals carrying out transitional duties for the next few months) have been former members of RPI Rentals.” Several students, however,
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had noticed that some of the employees were actually the same.
Mori said that it may have been a mistake to have some of the same people answering the phones after TSC took over the property management. He did say, though, “We have taken the reigns over.”
Alexander explained that Max Yaney is not an actual employee of TSC, but rather, his helping them was part of the contract for transferring the management of the properties. He said that his help has concerned some and that as time has gone on, “we are considering and have been using” his help less frequently.
Tanille DeLair also worked for RPI Rentals, but Alexander explained that “she’s somewhat familiar with the portfolio” and that they have been impressed with the work that she’s been doing.
Alexander said that they have hired new maintenance staff and that Jamie Bray was brought on to manage the properties in Troy. He also said that Jose Carranza, who was a property manager for RPI Rentals, is leading some of the renovation work but that “the management has been transitioned over.”
According to Mori, the company has about 35 employees on its payroll, which does not include contractors. Bray reports to Alexander, who also has management responsibilities for apartments in Illinois as well. The written statements also said that TSC manages over 300 apartments in three states. The third state in which they manage apartments is California.
While the website for some of the properties out in Illinois are pretty similar to that of RPI Rentals, and in fact, one of the website domain registrations was taken out by Maximus Yaney, Alexander explained that this was because he did a great deal of IT work for them; he said the properties there “had nothing to do with the RPI Rentals portfolio.” According Alexander, as the company worked with Yaney (for IT) a national investment group in partnership with them became interested in the RPI Rentals properties. This national investment group would develop a semi-personal relationship with Yaney and ultimately end up purchasing the properties.
Mori said that he thinks people are beginning to “see a huge, huge improvement.” He also said that since they have taken over the properties here and because there had been so many complaints in the past, they have been trying to “go above and beyond.”
The reactions of their residents seem to agree, though there was a little caution displayed by some.
According to Annette Giuffrida ’06, “Since Troy Student Housing has taken over for RPI Rentals, my relationship with them has become much better. Troy Student Housing has answered all my calls and emails in a timely fashion and has fixed any problems as soon as I report them.”
Ryan DeVito ’06 shared a similar sentiment, “Troy Student Housing was very polite when showing the house to new tenants. They made sure we were aware of incoming tours at all times, and made the interruptions minimal. The washing machine included with the apartment failed to operate a few months before the semester was over. Thankfully, after a quick phone call and a visit that same evening, Troy Student Housing was able to fix the washer the following day.”
Some still showed concerns about the past, though. Allison Guidry ’08, “If Troy Student Housing is anything like RPI Rentals was, we will end our contract as quickly as we can. We’re giving this place a second chance because of efficiency, but we’re wary of their history.”
While these quotes were collected by Troy Student Housing, they were confirmed and nothing was offered in response for the feedback.
There had also been a report recently about residents being charged for the plasma televisions that were stolen from several of the RPI Rentals properties over the winter break. In at least one case, the residents were recently billed for the cost of the television, but Mori said that the decision to charge the residents has been changed.
Mori explained that they purchased what was in the properties at the time of purchase. Thus, the stolen televisions are not going to be held against the residents; further, their policy going forward would not be to charge the residents in this type of situation. He stated that security deposits will not be held due to the televisions that were stolen over break and that the only people who may try to collect on the televisions are the individual former owners of the properties.
Jamie Bray seemed to echo the sentiments of the students and Mori. She said that since they have taken over the management, things have seemed to improve and that she has heard the same from residents.
