JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Jacksonville’s Eureka Gardens apartment complex could officially have new ownership later this summer, according to a new financial filing from its current owners. The ownership change is expected to bring improvements to the complex’s deplorable living conditions, which have been the subject of a yearslong I-TEAM investigation.
Global Ministries Foundation, the Memphis-based nonprofit that owns Eureka Gardens and other complexes subsidized through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Section 8 program, listed the property for sale more than two years ago. Millennia Housing Development is in the process of buying Eureka Gardens and GMF’s 36 other Section 8 properties. (See map below)
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In 2015, the I-TEAM began documenting squalor, mold, crumbling stairs, and gas and carbon monoxide leaks at the complex, which was receiving tens of millions of dollars of taxpayer money, and kept passing HUD inspections. In March 2017, HUD told GMF that it was in default of its Section 8 contract , after the complex failed its latest federal inspection.
In a disclosure tied to the bonds used to finance GMF’s original purchase of Eureka Gardens, the nonprofit says there have been unexpected delays on the buyer’s side, but that the sale agreement has been extended, due to “substantial” amounts Millennia has agreed to pay GMF.
According to the disclosure, Millennia intends to begin closing on the purchase of properties in Jacksonville, Orlando and Riviera Beach in June, with one closing taking place each month, through August. GMF states that it cannot guarantee the closings will occur.
Millennia is preparing for a $40 million rehabilitation of Eureka Gardens and three of the other properties it is buying in Jacksonville. The Ohio-based real estate company took over day-to-day management of Eureka Gardens in February 2017.