Defending Mr. Brophy

I read with great interest your article “Brophy’s Boondoggles” (April, 2004, p. 18) because I am Mr. Brophy’s attorney. It is my opinion that the article painted an incomplete picture of Mr. Brophy as a landlord… To give you a bit of history, Mr. Brophy is 33 years old and has been in the real estate development business for about 11 years. In 2002-2003, Mr. Brophy accelerated his acquisitions, purchasing between 50 and 60 various sized properties, many through foreclosure sales. Along with these properties came approximately 300 code violations orders at the time of acquisition. By the end of 2002, it became apparent to Mr. Brophy that his then current staff, consisting of one part-time property manager and nine or ten contractors were inadequate to properly service his increased portfolio.

Since Mr. Brophy is one of the largest property owners in Riverwest, and since many of the properties he acquired were distressed, he became an easy, and somewhat legitimate, target of the anger and frustration of the area residents and City officials seeking to improve the quality of life in the area. This anger and frustration has reached the point that caused your article to be written and the City to take official action.

As a result, Mr. Brophy is now operating pursuant to an agreement with the City which requires him to rehabilitate the properties more expeditiously. This means getting rid of bad tenants and being more selective with new ones. To assist in this direction, he has purchased a building in which to locate his office, hired a new property manager and office manager, retained two contractors for the purpose of remediating existing code violations and rehabilitating newly-acquired properties, as well as attended, along with his property manager, the course offered by the City for landlords. Additionally, he has spent over $100,000 to rehabilitate his existing properties. It is not Mr. Brophy’s intention to be the worst landlord in the area – instead, he would like to be the best.

Since “the squeaky wheel gets the grease,” it is not surprising that your article focused on his problem properties. Landlords and developers very rarely get good attention, regardless of the quality of their housing stock. The best most of them can hope for is anonymity. However, Mr. Brophy has many properties that he has rehabilitated and sold to owner-occupants and several “bad bars” in the area that he has purchased and closed.

Finally, it should be pointed out that even the best property owner is subject to the failings of his tenants. Landlords cannot be present on site 24/7, and if tenants decide to throw garbage in the yard instead of the dumpster, the tenants must accept a certain amount of responsibility for their actions. It is up to the landlord to police his properties as often as possible in order to ensure that tenants occupy the properties in a responsible manner, but he must also rely upon the tenants and neighbors to advise him of unacceptable conduct.
Mr. Brophy urges you to look at some of the properties he has rehabilitated and to watch the progress on his properties as he takes them from their existing distressed state to a finished state before you judge him based upon the problems he has purchased. This will be the best test as to whether he keeps his promise to the community.

Harvey Jay Goldstein