On housing site Airbnb, the owner of a four-plex apartment building in St. Paul advertised enough room to sleep 28 guests, provided they share queen beds and sofas, at $818 per night: “You’ll have the whole place to yourselves! All four apartments are exactly the same size. … The apartments are all decorated by (a) Twin Cities interior designer.”
The wording, which seems to fly in the face of city rules limiting the number of short-term rentals per apartment complex, has prompted the city to investigate.
The property — 1287 Dayton Ave., a former Concordia University student and faculty residence — sold for $330,000 to the university president’s wife. Its units have also been advertised for rent of $2,200 each.
The property owner in question is Susan Ries and her design firm, Susie Ries Interiors Inc. of Burnsville. Ries, a contributor to KSTP’s “Twin Cities Live” home, food and fashion show, is the wife of Concordia University President Tom Ries, who has overseen the university since 2011. Tom Ries has announced he plans to retire in 2019.
A reporter’s call and email to Susan Ries were not returned Tuesday. On Wednesday, an Airbnb advertisement for the property was taken down, and a new note on the rental listing at Zillow.com indicated “this property is not currently for sale or for rent. The description below may be from a previous listing.”
In 2016, Concordia University sold two multi-family rental properties to private buyers through Frauenshuh Commercial Real Estate, which requested bids for each site. For the four-unit site at 1287 Dayton Ave., the real estate firm chose Ries, and sold her the property for $330,000.
It’s unclear how many bids the real estate firm received. A call to Frauenshuh was not returned this week.
A somewhat larger six-unit apartment building at 1232 Marshall Ave., which includes a side lot, sold for $495,000 to Mint Properties of Minneapolis. The properties were not listed on the Multiple Listing Service, a typical way of advertising homes for sale.
“One (property) went to one party and one went to another, for the highest price,” said Concordia University Provost and Chief Operating Officer Eric LaMott, who said each property drew multiple bidders. The four-plex at 1287 Dayton “wasn’t in the best shape,” LaMott said. “She actually had to put a ton of work into it.”
LaMott said Concordia once used the properties to house married students, or occasionally faculty, but they were both vacant well before their sale.
“We didn’t have a population of students that was in there. It’s not in our business to have housing that is not related to students,” he said. “They’re not directly connected to campus, either.”
On social media, however, at least one former resident and a friend of a former resident came forward Thursday evening to say the Dayton Avenue address was occupied by students and faculty before, during and after the sale to Susie Ries. “There were married students with a newborn, a professor and her two kids, and me — staff at the time,” said Bri Traquair, who was able to produce a digital copy of a letter of introduction that Susie Ries sent her after the purchase.
AIRBNB LISTING
Under city rules, non-owner-occupied properties can convert no more than two units into short-term rentals such as Airbnb. For owner-occupied four-plexes, all four units can be leased out as short-term rentals, but only if the owner lives and remains on the premises.
Susan and Tom Ries live in Burnsville.
“We were aware of this situation and are working with the property owner,” said Laurie Brickley, a spokeswoman for St. Paul’s Department of Safety and Inspections. “As this case is still an open investigation, we are unable to comment about it. Enforcement actions have not yet been completed.”
Violations of the city ordinance are a misdemeanor or petty misdemeanor, and punishable by up to a $1,000 fine and 90 days in jail.
Property records show Susie Ries Interiors bought the four-plex from Concordia University in August 2016 for $330,000 — at least 40 percent less than what comparable properties in the area were selling for at the time. A similar-size four-plex on Mackubin Street sold for $545,000 almost a year prior. In January 2016, another four-plex along Oxford Street sold for just under $500,000 at bank auction.
On Zillow.com, the two-bedroom apartments at 1287 Dayton Ave. are each being advertised at $2,200 per month: “Full kitchen with brand new everything including microwave, range and refrigerator. Room air conditioners. Brand new washer/dryer in unit.”
As a nonprofit educational institution, Concordia University is exempt from property taxes. Property records from 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017 show that no property taxes were paid in those years. In 2018, the owner paid $7,200 in taxes and $243 in special assessments.
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