Greater than a month after an arson hearth at a storage yard broken a key Los Angeles freeway, the state has employed safety guards to be careful for smoke and different hassle at three further websites beneath the ten Freeway that had been leased to the identical bankrupt businessman.
Related Press journalists visited the properties and noticed picket pallets and different hazardous and flammable materials very like what fed the Nov. 11 inferno beneath the freeway, which is utilized by 300,000 autos every day. Rats scurried beneath automobiles, vans and RVs in varied states of restore and electrical wiring snaked throughout the bottom.
The state has subcontracted the safety providers because it fights to evict Ahmad Anthony Nowaid and scores of tenants subleasing via him in violation of his contracts with the California Division of Transportation, in keeping with court docket data.
No arrests have been introduced within the arson case that compelled a one-week closure of a 2-mile stretch of a key hall for America’s provide chain and for commuters within the nation’s second-largest metropolis. Gov. Gavin Newsom mentioned the property was within the palms of “unhealthy actors.”
The state leased increasingly land to Nowaid at the same time as accusations mounted towards him, elevating questions in regards to the authorities’s vetting course of earlier than it leases land beneath California’s freeways and highways.
Nowaid leased the storage yard that burned and 4 different properties from Caltrans — all however considered one of them beneath the ten — via his corporations, Apex Growth Inc. and Metro Investments Group.
The guards from Treston Safety Companies are additionally at a receiving space the place flamable objects had been moved from properties leased to Nowaid and a upkeep yard the place Caltrans has arrange short-term places of work, Caltrans mentioned.
On a December afternoon, a type of guards sporting a neon vest sat in a folding chair exterior a gated storage yard leased to Nowait that was stacked with picket pallets.
Six tenants subletting areas beneath the freeway described Nowaid as a bully. They confirmed receipts of their month-to-month funds to the Related Press. Nowaid owes the state practically $223,000 for one property, in keeping with court docket paperwork.
“The place did all our cash go?” mentioned Alberto Mazariegos, who shops his enterprise’s industrial laundry machines on the website the place he paid $1,100 a month in lease. “The state empowered this man. They’re accountable too.”
An individual who answered a telephone quantity listed for Nowaid referred inquiries to an legal professional, Mainak D’Attaray. The legal professional didn’t reply to calls and emails in search of remark o n any of the allegations. D’Attaray mentioned in an announcement in November that Apex was to not blame for the fireplace and had made enhancements to that property, although he mentioned the corporate had not been in a position to entry the premises shortly earlier than the blaze occurred.
The Nov. 11 hearth rapidly unfold, fueled by picket pallets, provides of hand sanitizer and different flammable supplies saved there in violation of the lease contract. The inferno broken practically 100 assist columns of the interstate. Sixteen individuals who had been residing there, together with a pregnant girl, had been safely evacuated. The Biden administration gave the state $3 million in response to the catastrophe, although Caltrans has not launched a ultimate price ticket.
Data present the state was conscious of issues on the websites leased to Nowaid, with inspectors providing blistering reviews figuring out unsafe circumstances for years.
Among the many authorized filings involving Nowaid whereas he did enterprise with the state beginning in 2008:
—A 2015 restraining order granted to a person who alleged civil harassment by Nowaid.
—A 2016 lawsuit by a recycling enterprise proprietor who mentioned she was subletting from Nowaid and was illegally locked out after he posted “two assault canines on the premises, presumably to greet anyone who would dare enter,” the court docket submitting mentioned. The lawsuit was ultimately dismissed.
—A $70,000 settlement in a 2019 case towards considered one of his corporations to cowl unpaid wages for development staff.
In 2017, Caltrans offered Nowaid land used for a cell house park in Ceres in Northern California. Residents there filed a lawsuit in 2022 accusing him of overcharging for lease whereas leaving the property in squalor. That go well with is ongoing.
Caltrans mentioned the company conducts reference checks earlier than leasing its properties however declined to reply different questions on Nowaid’s historical past.
Nowaid’s title is tied to at the very least 20 companies — together with actual property, property administration and development companies — which have registered with California’s secretary of state. Two of his companies individually filed for chapter in 2016 and 2019, in keeping with state court docket data.
Following the fireplace, Newsom ordered a overview of all 601 so-called “airspace” websites that Caltrans has leased round roadways. This system dates again to the Sixties and many of the properties have been used for parking heaps, cellphone towers, open storage and warehouses. The heaps vary wherever from a number of hundred to 1000’s of sq. toes, and they’re concentrated in Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay space.
The airspace leases have introduced in additional than $170 million over the previous 5 years.
The websites leased by Nowaid’s corporations “are outliers, and comparatively few websites current confirmed security or hearth issues,” Caltrans mentioned in an announcement.
State inspectors paid six visits to the positioning that burned, beginning in 2020, and reported repeatedly that flammable and unsafe supplies had been being saved there.
In February 2020, inspectors famous a number of subtenants, picket pallets and washing machines. In September 2021, inspectors reported hazardous supplies, and in August 2022, in a shock go to by inspectors and the fireplace marshal, they discovered solvents, oils and a homeless encampment that had returned.
“It is a filthy unmaintained lease,” inspector Daryl Myatt wrote in a September 2022 report. “This space has been utilized because the mid-Nineteen Seventies and appears prefer it.”
In that very same month, Caltrans warned Nowaid that hazardous supplies had been additionally discovered at two different websites leased by him, and inspectors had been denied entry to the remaining two.
Weeks earlier than the fireplace, a tenant at one of many properties mentioned Nowaid not solely locked him out of his personal enterprise but additionally confirmed up “with an individual with weapons” and that he was afraid that Nowaid would possibly kill him. The case was dismissed when the tenant failed to point out up in court docket.
Nowaid’s tenants at one other property flagged as unsafe mentioned they put in lighting and enormous water tanks, and bought hearth extinguishers, which Nowaid was supposed to offer. A few dozen individuals work there at companies starting from a mechanic’s store to a scrap metallic recycling commerce.
Caltrans officers visited this summer time and instructed the tenants they might be evicted as a result of Nowaid hadn’t been paying lease. The tenants mentioned they need to lease from Caltrans straight and would adhere to the principles.
“It makes me indignant,” mentioned Felix Hernandez Rubio, a mechanic who paid month-to-month for seven years. “I’ve good credit score. Some idiot shouldn’t be allowed to smash my title. That is violating my rights.”
Related Press journalists Stefanie Dazio in Los Angeles and Sophie Austin in Sacramento contributed to this report.