Thomas Breen photo
Fenced-off Fitch houses, between Dyer and Blake.
A chain-link fence with a blue screen now stretches across one side of nearly a full block of Fitch Street — partially shielding from view a row of Ocean Management-controlled dilapidated houses that are the subject of more than $150,000 in new anti-blight liens.
The fence stands in front of the Beaver Hills properties located at 166, 168, 170, 172, 174, and 176 Fitch St. A separate, identical fence also now stands nearby in front of 202, 210, 216 and 220 Fitch St.
Those ten properties contain a total of eight single-family houses and one four-family house, all vacant and all owned by affiliates of Ocean Management, a megalandlord-property management outfit run by Shmuel Aizenberg.
Ocean’s companies bought these Fitch Street properties between 2020 and 2021.
Last December, a Livable City Initiative (LCI) hearing officer approved more than $130,000 in anti-blight fines for six of those properties — located between 166 and 176 Fitch — which appeared to suffer from collapsed porches, peeling paint, and decaying roofs. At the time, there were also old mattresses, broken furniture, and trash bags piled in the back of 172 Fitch next to a filled-to-capacity dumpster.
That trash pile behind 172 Fitch is now gone, even as the buildings remain unoccupied and in evident disrepair.
The fence appears to have gone up in the past few weeks. It partially blocks from view vehicles, including some construction vehicles, that now sit behind at least one of the blighted buildings.
Meanwhile, per the city’s land records database, LCI filed a host of anti-blight liens on May 15 and on May 22 on these properties.
Those liens amount to a total of $153,600, and include $21,700 for 166 Fitch, $21,700 for 168 Fitch, $21,700 for 170 Fitch, $21,700 for 172 Fitch, $21,700 for 174 Fitch, $21,700 for 176 Fitch, $11,700 for 202 Fitch, and $11,700 for 210 Fitch.
The lien documents indicate that the fines “shall continue to accrue at the rate of $100 per day until the blight is abated.”
Aizenberg, the head of Ocean Management, did not respond to requests for comment by the publication time of this article.
In December, Ocean’s lawyer at the time, Gerald Giaimo, told the Independent that these Fitch Street buildings were slated for demolition. Reached for comment on Wednesday, Giaimo told the Independent he is no longer representing Ocean Management or Aizenberg.
Giaimo confirmed as much in a recent court filing in an ongoing case called GZA Geoenvironmental, Inc. v. Fitch Development, LLC. That lawsuit was filed in January by a Norwood, Mass-based firm that claims that it entered into an agreement with the Ocean-affiliate Fitch Development LLC in March 2022 “to provide certain professional services” at 164 – 178, 202, 210 and 220 Fitch St.
GZA Geoenvironmental provided those unspecified services, according to the lawsuit, but the Ocean Management affiliate never paid the amount owed. An April 15 motion for judgment after default indicates that the Ocean affiliate owed GZA $58,729.03, not including costs and attorney’s fees. Ocean has denied wrongdoing in the case.
Giaimo had been representing Fitch Development, LLC in this case. But on April 23, he filed his own motion for permission to withdraw his appearance — given that the Ocean Management affiliate had not paid him, as well.
The “attorney-client relationship has broken down materially and the Defendant has failed to meet its financial obligations to the firm,” Giaimo wrote, making him and his law firm, UKS, “unable to continue to represent the Defendant.”
On Wednesday, state Superior Court Judge Latonia Williams granted Giaimo’s request to stop representing the Ocean Management affiliate in this case.
Dilapidated porches, still visible behind the fence.
More fence! Still on Fitch, between Dyer and Crescent.
Behind the fence by 172 Fitch.
Thomas Breen File Photo
