Three Tacoma Hilltop-area apartment sites have sold to an LLC connected to a management company that has faced notable legal fights at some of its properties.
The properties were sold July 31 by business entities affiliated with Abie Label & Associates to Dimension Townhouses LLC, affiliated with Dimension Property Management in Renton.
Dimension owns/oversees properties that include single-family homes, condominiums and multi-unit apartment complexes in a portfolio mostly spanning the Puget Sound region — many in Tacoma-Seattle-area markets.
A review of parcel records with the Pierce County Assessor-Treasurer’s Office shows the LLC owns dozens of parcels in the county.
The sales of the three sites were first reported earlier this month by the Seattle Daily Journal of Commerce, and at least two of the three sites are tied to earlier, regional affordable housing efforts.
Abie Label, originally from Montreal, moved to Seattle and acquired properties in the Seattle-Tacoma area, playing a crucial role in subsidized housing.
Label died in 2007, and various affiliated entities have since held the three Tacoma properties that traded hands last month: 1419 Apartments, 1419 S. J St., which sold for $5 million; 1416 Apartments, 1402 Yakima Ave. (also known as 803 S. 15th St.), which sold for $6 million; and Christine Apartments, 2503 S. I St., which sold for $3 million.
Two of the properties, the 1419 and 1416 Apartments, appear on a Washington Department of Revenue list of partial nonprofit property tax exempted sites, qualifying as “Homes For the Aging.”
The tax exemption is available to sites serving qualifying low-income seniors or disabled individuals and meeting other state standards, including varying levels of care and supervision.
Beverly Crichfield is a media representative with the Department of Revenue. She told The News Tribune via email in response to questions that “both sites are operating as Homes for the Aging.”
The exemptions, created to help support the availability of housing for qualifying individuals, do not carry over to new owners without re-applying.
“We plan to contact the current nonprofit and new owners to determine next steps,” Crichfield wrote. “Typically, we remove the exemption as of the date of sale and encourage the new owners to apply if they plan to continue the exempt use of the property.”
Suneet and Rucchi Diwan, the listed governors for the LLC, declined to answer questions from The News Tribune regarding the Tacoma property purchases and future plans for them.
They also would not answer questions regarding code enforcement at a Dimension property in Everett, a legal dispute with the City of Tacoma over 92 square feet of property the city sought for a public improvement project, and past litigation brought by a local disabled veteran.
That case yielded a consent decree focused on educating the defendants in housing law.
“Dimension Townhouses, LLC respectfully declines to participate in the article,” Rucchi Diwan responded via email on Aug. 14.
Housing and land disputes
While Dimension isn’t talking about its Tacoma holdings, one of its properties north of Seattle attracted local media attention.
The Snohomish County Tribune and Everett Herald in 2021-2022 reported on a Dimension Townhouses LLC apartment site in Everett, purchased July 2021, where tenants complained the owners were trying to force older, longtime tenants out.
The case was presented to a hearing examiner, part of the city’s process in reviewing and issuing orders in local code-enforcement cases.
In the hearing examiner report, Dimension’s attorney argued his client had “inherited” tenants when the building was purchased and cited a history of conflict between the tenants and owners.
That conflict was highlighted in a footnote in the examiner’s report that stated owner Suneet Diwan had concerns over the proceedings “on the basis that he had anxiety about being confronted by tenants of the structure ...”
In August 2022, the owner was fined $1,500 and ordered to bring the building up to code, The Everett Herald reported.
The city did not provide further details on any additional action when contacted by The News Tribune, and instead recommended filing a public records request.
Two years before that, the City of Tacoma sued Dimension in August 2020 to obtain a sliver of property the city sought as part of its East Portland Avenue Safety Improvements project, which included removing and replacing traffic signal heads, rewiring of existing traffic signals systems, removal and replacement of traffic islands and curb ramps, and more.
That project included 92 square feet of a parcel Dimension owned at the corner of Portland Avenue East and East 38th Street. Dimension originally acquired the multiplex residential site at foreclosure in 2015 for $196,000.
The city took action after “honest differences of opinion” between the city and the property owners, according to legal filings.
The case was resolved with a stipulated judgment and decree of appropriation in February 2021, with a judgment amount of $2,350 to cover the land and attorney fees, to be paid by the city.
The News Tribune asked city officials how common it is to go to court with property owners in such a case to obtain property.
City media representative Maria Lee told The News Tribune via email, “It is not typical for the city to have to file a condemnation action, and even less typical to go to condemnation to acquire relatively minimal square footage for use as public right of way.”
County records show Dimension sold its remaining property at the site in December 2022 to an LLC affiliated with a Bellevue developer for $770,000.
One tenant’s battle
One lawsuit against Dimension spanned both Pierce and King counties and led to a consent decree aimed at correcting actions that ran up against state laws on housing protections.
The LLC along with Rajsons Properties Inc., an affiliated business entity, were the focus of a 2019 lawsuit filed in King County by Robert Elon Mix of Lakewood, represented by the Northwest Justice Project.
Dimension, through an affiliated LLC, purchased the property where Mix lived, Bridgewood Apartments, in 2018 for $3.22 million, according to county records.
According to the complaint, the previous property owners allowed Mix, a disabled veteran, to pay his rent in two installments because of the timing of when he received his monthly disability and Social Security checks, which came at separate times.
The complaint contended that once Dimension took on the site, it did not allow for the same arrangement and instead charged late fees. It also alleged violations of state law against discrimination and residential landlord tenant act.
According to the court filings, Mix received notice of termination of his tenancy effective at the end of September 2018, and he moved out, ending a 10-year residency.
Dimension, in its response to the court, denied the claims. Attorney for Dimension Michael Woo wrote in the filing that “the lease given to defendant had a term start date of June 1, 2016, that the lease specified that the rent was due on the first day of the month and must be received by the fifth to avoid a late fee... .”
Dimension, in a counterclaim, sought to collect more than $4,000, including cleaning/repair costs to the apartment after his departure.
Scott Crain is a statewide advocacy counsel for Northwest Justice Project in Seattle who served on the legal team that represented Mix.
He made clear the premise of the case in a recent interview with The News Tribune.
“They have to move the rent payment date to accommodate people whose income comes later in the month if it’s based on their disability,” Crain said.
The case culminated in a court-enforced consent decree on August 2020.
In the decree, Dimension and its representatives were ordered to “comply with the Washington Law Against Discrimination, the federal Fair Housing Act, and any other law or ordinance governing fair housing compliance in defendants’ business offering residential real estate for rent.”
Dimension Townhouses LLC executives Suneet Diwan, Rucchi Diwan and their employees involved in leasing or managing tenants also were ordered to complete fair housing training, “with specific emphasis on the duty to reasonably accommodate people with disabilities.”
Mix, who’s 73 and now lives in Tacoma, told The News Tribune that he was “barely” able to find housing in time to avoid being homeless.
Crain told The News Tribune that Mix was ultimately compensated, “and then Dimension also agreed to the consent decree.”
Financial terms were not disclosed.
Part of the consent decree mandated language to appear on advertisem*nts for Dimension’s rental properties, which does appear at the top of Dimension Property Management’s website showing available properties: “We do not discriminate on the basis of disability. If you believe that due to your disability you may need accommodation any of our rules, policies, practices, or procedures, please notify any member of our staff of your need for an accommodation.”
When told of the latest purchase of the Tacoma apartments, Mix sighed.
“I have nothing good to say about Dimension. I would be a very poor reference,” he said.
Crain said the consent decree remains an important milestone in hopes of avoiding future disputes.
“Part of the reason we got that consent decree in place was to try to get Dimension to understand fair housing laws, train their employees and do better in the future.”
