Eye Sore of the Week: Marvin Gardens Apartments

Marvin Gardens Apartments

Don’t be fooled by this week’s eyesore. 

Although it bears the same name as one of the ritziest sets of property on a standard Monopoly game board, this apartment complex near the corner of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Cavanaugh Road in South Lansing desperately needs some work to live up to its name.

It has all the hallmarks of the shabbiest properties that typically earn a spot in this recurring feature: several shattered and boarded-up windows, a crumbling parking lot, broken deck railings, a sinking roof and other rundown exterior fixtures. We can only imagine the inside. Some units have trash collecting outside. There’s even a car on blocks in the back parking lot.

The kicker: A car reportedly crashed into the side of the building more than two months ago. Fortunately, nobody was injured. Unfortunately, management has yet to complete the repairs. Two beams pressed against a few sheets of plywood seem to be holding the building together.

Our calls to the management office (and the “emergency maintenance” line) for Marvin Gardens Apartments were left unreturned. Online reviews suggest that residents have had similar luck. 

County records show the complex was purchased by MG72 LLC in 2016 for about $1.4 million. State records list an office address for the company at Beverly Place Apartments on Kalamazoo Street. Big surprise: There were several shattered and boarded-up windows over there too. 

This apartment complex was also located in the center of a concentrated outbreak of COVID-19 that was detected by the Ingham County Health Department last summer in zip code 48911. Residents over there could use a break. Here’s hoping that this glowing feature motivates the management to start taking the living conditions of their tenants seriously — or else perhaps just consider changing the name to Baltic or Mediterranean Apartments. It would be more fitting.

“Eyesore of the Week” is our look at some of the seedier properties in Lansing. It rotates with Eye Candy of the Week and Eye for Design. Have a suggestion? Email eye@lansingcitypulse.com or call it in at 517-999-6715.

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