JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The Downtown East Apartments, formerly the Franklin Arms Apartments, on Franklin Street are no stranger to the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office.
More than 400 calls for service have been made to the complex from April 2020 to May 2021, according to an information release by the sheriff's office.
"Situations with just overall with the property not being kept up," said Christopher McKee, pastor of the nearby First Baptist Church of Oakland.
He says he's familiar with the drug busts, shootings and robberies that have happened at the complex and made it his mission to attend Thursday's Public Nuisance Abatement Board meeting.
"We want to feel a sense of security," McKee told First Coast News. "We want to continue to see this neighborhood become all that it can be."
City attorneys presented their case against property owner Ravi Katta, highlighting conditions they believe need attention and improvement, including more security like better cameras and fencing.
The sheriff's office is investigating a murder that happened there earlier this year.
"We certainly need the public's help," said Brian Kee, the Chief of Investigations for the sheriff's office. "They are the ones that are seeing it firsthand and without their testimony, their cooperation, it's very difficult to solve these cases."
Katta, who flew in from out of state, defended his property and told the board he's already spent thousands of dollars on improvements, but needs the city's help.
"In the last three or four months, we have spent at least a couple hundred of thousands of dollars worth of money doing all what we could do," Katta said. ". We would like to get some help. We don't get any funding from anybody."
Councilmember LeAnna Cumber, who drafted the legislation to create the abatement board, says it now gives the city authority to hold property owners accountable.
"Hopefully people will be put on notice that the city is not going to stand for businesses harboring illegal activity," she said.
The board stopped short of issuing Katta about $1,700 in fines and instead is giving him a month to show he's making an effort to improve the apartments.