Dozens of residents of a derelict apartment complex on Akron’s South Main Street were forced to leave their homes Thursday after bricks fell Sunday from the 110-year-old building’s facade, signaling to county inspectors that the building presented an imminent safety hazard if people remained. 

A press release from the City of Akron said around 60 people live in the 51-unit apartment building at 1431 S. Main St. Some residents told Signal Akron Friday that they were frustrated about being forced out on such short notice the afternoon before, despite the county being aware since at least Monday of the structural issues that led to the forced evacuation.

“They did us wrong,” said Robert Anderson, who said he’d been living in the building for two years. “They come in that morning and that afternoon, they tell us, ‘Get your stuff and get out.’”

Robert Anderson, stands on the balcony on the back of the apartment building at 1431 S. Main. St. in Akron.
Robert Anderson stands on the balcony on the back of the apartment building at 1431 S. Main. St. in Akron where he’s lived for about two years. Residents were evacuated Thursday after the building’s condition worsened and posed an imminent danger. On Sunday, the building’s front facade partially collapsed, dropping bricks and debris onto the sidewalk and roadway below. Anderson returned to the building to collect some of his belongings. (Susan Zake / Signal Akron)

In a press release, city officials said they coordinated with Metro RTA to transport residents “who had no other accommodations” to the city’s Emergency Overnight Shelter on Voris Street. 

Akron is aware of sex offender status of some residents

At least 20 convicted sex offenders, including Anderson, list the building as their home address, according to a review of the state’s sex offender database. Those on the registry are required to report their address to the county; some have restrictions on where they can live, including limits on proximity to churches, schools and playgrounds.

“Yes we are aware of the sex offender status of some of the residents of the building,” city spokesperson Stephanie Marsh said in an email. “Many of them are still on parole and the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction Parole Services has been very helpful at placing those folks. The Summit County Reentry Collaborative has been offering assistance for those who are registered sex offenders but are no longer on parole.”

Apartment building at 1431 S. Main. St.
Residents of this apartment building at 1431 S. Main. St. in Akron were evacuated Thursday afternoon after the building’s condition continued to deteriorate. On Sunday, Feb. 9, the building’s front facade partially collapsed, dropping bricks and debris onto the sidewalk and roadway below. Summit County Division of Building Standards conducted a structural assessment and recommended the sidewalk and street parking be closed off and the building be condemned due to severe structural integrity concerns. It was decided Thursday the building presented an “imminent danger” to the 60 or so residents who lived there. (Signal Akron / Susan Zake)

Some residents said on Friday they didn’t have a place to go or were frustrated that they had made rent payments only to lose their homes. 

William Williams, who said he lived in the building for more than three years, said he’d paid $3,000 of his tax refund for his apartment. Telessa Brown, who said she had been in and out of her apartment since 2017, said she was bussed to a shelter last night but had nowhere to go during the day. (The names provided by Williams and Brown do not appear in the sex offender registry.)

“We’re tooth and nail right now,” Brown said. “Why should we pay rent if you’re not gonna do nothing and just keep our money?”

William Williams, a resident of the apartment building at 1431 S. Main. St.
William Williams, a resident of the apartment building at 1431 S. Main. St. in Akron, points at the evacuation orders posted today on one of the building doors. Williams and other residents were evacuated Thursday afternoon after the building’s condition continued to deteriorate. On Sunday, Feb. 9, the building’s front facade partially collapsed, dropping bricks and debris onto the sidewalk and roadway below. (Susan Zake / Signal Akron)

Building was evacuated Thursday after recommendation from Summit County building official

Akron Fire Department Chief Leon Henderson made the call to evacuate the building on Thursday, shortly after receiving an email from Summit County Chief Building Official Christopher Randles, who warned that the building should be condemned “to protect life and limb.” 

Records show that county investigators showed up to the three-story complex in the Firestone Park neighborhood Monday, a day after the facade began to crumble. Photographs from the county taken Monday show a large pile of bricks on the sidewalk and yellow caution tape cordoning off the building’s entrance. The city’s statement announcing the partial facade collapse of the privately owned building said there was “further deterioration and additional debris falling from the structure” in the following days. 

“A portion of the brick veneer has fallen onto the sidewalk and street below and the remaining brick veneer poses a imminent hazard of becoming detached from the main structure and falling onto the public sidewalk and street below as has already occurred,” Randles wrote to Henderson on Thursday, leading to the evacuation order. 

“This is even more likely to happen this time of year as the freeze thaw cycle acts to further damage the brick veneer. If you examine all walls with brick veneer it can be determined without any tools that the brick veneer is detaching from the structure by the ‘wavy’ appearance.”

Telessa Brown, stands at the back of the apartment building she lives in at 1431 S. Main. St.
Telessa Brown stands at the back of the apartment building she lives in at 1431 S. Main. St. in Akron. Residents of the building were evacuated Thursday afternoon after its condition continued to deteriorate. On Sunday, Feb. 9, the building’s front facade partially collapsed, dropping bricks and debris onto the sidewalk and roadway below. Summit County Division of Building Standards conducted a structural assessment and recommended the sidewalk and street parking be closed off and the building be condemned due to severe structural integrity concerns. On Thursday, it was decided the building presented an “imminent danger” to the 60 or so residents who lived there. (Susan Zake / Signal Akron)

The Parkside Male Residential Hotel

The apartment complex is owned by a company called Taurus, Libra & Cancer, Inc., which is registered to a man named Robert L. Johnson, who lives at the complex and was identified by residents as their landlord. 

It is unclear how the evacuation order impacts Johnson, who is currently on house arrest in the building as he awaits trial on three felonies — assault and two counts of kidnapping — and misdemeanor counts of domestic violence and resisting arrest. Court records indicate the offenses are alleged to have occurred at the now-evacuated building. 

Johnson was previously convicted of aggravated robbery and of killing a Cleveland woman in 1987. According to an appeal filed by his attorney in 2017, an Akron man named Joel Brown believed Johnson was innocent of the murder conviction and befriended Johnson while he was in prison in the late 1990s. 

Bricks and other debris cover the sidewalk and part of the street parking area in front of 1431 S. Main. St. in Akron.
Bricks and other debris cover the sidewalk and part of the street parking area in front of 1431 S. Main. St. in Akron. Residents of the building were evacuated Thursday afternoon after its condition continued to deteriorate. On Sunday, Feb. 9, the building’s front facade partially collapsed, dropping bricks and debris onto the sidewalk and roadway below. (Susan Zake / Signal Akron)

Brown was the longtime owner of the now-evacuated South Main Street building, which he called the Parkside Male Residential Hotel.

A 2004 Cleveland Scene story called it “a refuge for men who have nowhere else to go” and said that Brown “harbored sex offenders, convicts, and recovering drug addicts. Brown understands what being stranded is all about.” 

The story said Brown intended to make the building into a luxury retirement community for gay men.

“Unfortunately, reality falls short of Brown’s vision,” the magazine wrote more than two decades ago. “The Parkside’s gray concrete structure sits in the heart of a post-industrial ghetto. Its windowless entrance faces South Main Street, which remains empty except for a muffler shop, Schermesser Funeral Home, and a few sagging houses.”

Apartment building at 1431 S. Main. St. in Akron
On Sunday, Feb. 9, this apartment building’s front facade partially collapsed, dropping bricks and debris onto the sidewalk and roadway below. Thursday, residents of the building at 1431 S. Main. St. in Akron were evacuated after the building’s condition continued to deteriorate. Summit County Division of Building Standards conducted a structural assessment and recommended the sidewalk and street parking be closed off and the building be condemned due to severe structural integrity concerns. It was decided Thursday the building presented an “imminent danger” to the 60 or so residents who lived there. (Susan Zake / Signal Akron)

Brown died in 2018 at the age of 74. Johnson, the incarcerated man he befriended in the 1990s, took over the company that owned the building that same year. 

Williams, who had been a resident for three years, said he had been able to return for some of his belongings and had no place to spend the day after his second-shift job ended — the shelters provided for displaced residents kicked people out at 6 a.m., he said. 

“You’re telling me I can’t come home, where I live,” he said. “Long day. I wanted to get all the factory grime off and come home and refresh myself and be cool and comfortable and happy and relax and chill and pass out to my TV and wake up and go to work again. … I can’t even do that.”

Signal background

Government Reporter (he/him)
Doug Brown covers all things connected to the government in the city. He strives to hold elected officials and other powerful figures accountable to the community through easily digestible stories about complex issues. Prior to joining Signal Akron, Doug was a communications staffer at the ACLU of Oregon, news reporter for the Portland Mercury, staff writer for Cleveland Scene, and writer for Deadspin.com, among other roles. He has a bachelor’s degree in political science from Hiram College and a master’s degree in journalism from Kent State University.

Economics of Akron Reporter (she/her)
Arielle is a Northeast Ohio native with more than 20 years of reporting experience in Cleveland, Atlanta and Detroit. She joined Signal Akron as its founding education reporter, where she covered Akron Public Schools and the University of Akron.
As the economics of Akron reporter, Arielle will cover topics including housing, economic development and job availability. Through her reporting, she aims to help Akron residents understand the economic issues that are affecting their ability to live full lives in the city, and highlight information that can help residents make decisions. Arielle values diverse voices in her reporting and seeks to write about under-covered issues and groups.

Editor-in-Chief (she/her)
Zake has deep roots in Northeast Ohio journalism. She was the managing editor for multimedia and special projects at the Akron Beacon Journal, where she began work as a staff photographer in 1986. Over a 20-year career, Zake worked in a variety of roles across departments that all help inform her current role as Signal Akron's editor in chief. Most recently, she was a journalism professor and student media adviser at Kent State University, where she worked with the next generation of journalists to understand public policy, environmental reporting, data and solutions reporting. Among her accomplishments was the launch of the Kent State NewsLab, an experiential and collaborative news commons that connects student reporters with outside professional partners.