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Lexvest Group

    SUBSTANDARD

    Double Rent, Broken Appliances at Lexvest’s Gov. Bradford Properties

    Meanwhile, the Prince of Whales in Truro becomes mostly short-term rentals

    By

    PROVINCETOWN — When the Governor Bradford restaurant and four adjacent buildings were sold in April 2022 for $6.95 million, it was no secret that the buildings were not in great shape.

    Just after the sale, the new owner, Lexvest Group President Eric Shapiro, told the Independent that the property was “tired and needs work, capital, and a vision — and that is what we do.”

    The Lexvest Group bought 312-314 Commercial St. (left), 322 Commercial St. (right), and three other residential buildings for $6,950,000 in April 2022. (Photos by Sam Pollak)

    In addition to the main property at 312-314 Commercial St., Lexvest had bought 318 and 322 Commercial St., 10 Freeman St., and 3 Standish St. — a group of buildings with 26 bedrooms in all.

    The property’s previous owner, Donald Edwards, had rented nearly all of those bedrooms to Governor Bradford workers at affordable rates. When Lexvest acquired the property and raised the rent, tenants like Brett Buryj, whose rent increased by 50 percent, expected their apartments to become a bit more livable.

    Buryj said that his unit at 10 Freeman St. had a cracked window and a stove that broke in October 2022. There were smaller problems, too, Buryj said, like a bedroom door that wouldn’t shut and a toilet without a proper flusher.

    Buryj said his rent went from $600 a month under Edwards to $900 a month and was set to increase again to $1,200 in May. When Buryj started asking for repairs, he didn’t think it would end with his eviction.

    In December 2022, Buryj said, he began to withhold his rent after two months with a broken stove because “multiple requests went unanswered.” Tenants in Massachusetts have the right to withhold rent if an apartment isn’t properly maintained, although the state’s website warns it is “a serious step and should be dealt with carefully.”

    Buryj said that the stove was fixed in early January, but his window remained broken. “In the middle of winter with cold air blowing in your room and it’s overtaking the heat, and you’re shivering under your sheets, that’s not livable,” he said.

    On Jan. 25, Buryj received a notice to quit for nonpayment of rent. The next day, Buryj said, someone came to fix the window.

    “I completely broke down,” Buryj said. “It broke my heart because I am a loyal employee of the Bradford. Buryj said he is a manager and bartender at the Governor Bradford restaurant — whose owners lease the space from Lexvest — but that didn’t seem to matter to the company.

    Buryj eventually found housing through his second job at Bayside Betsy’s. He said he “really lucked out. Other people on the property, if they lose that housing, who’s to say they will find new housing?”

    Shapiro disputed Buryj’s story. “We had no incentive to move him out,” he said. “He elected not to pay his rent.”

    Buryj said that once the notice to quit letter came, his option to pay the withheld rent was effectively ended. The letter said that “any payment after your receipt of this notice of termination of tenancy-at-will will not establish a new tenancy and will not reinstate your former tenancy.”

    Buryj also said that other people who live in the complex have had similar problems and are too afraid to speak up.

    Another tenant — who would speak to the Independent only on condition of anonymity — said she has had a broken oven since May and that her refrigerator does not keep food cold. She said she can no longer cook in her apartment.

    She also said that her rent has doubled in less than six months, but she is still afraid to insist on repairs due to fear of eviction.

    Shapiro said that his company has been working to improve the property but that it takes time.

    “I won’t deny that we acquired a tired property,” Shapiro said. “Our business is to restore and help improve the community we operate in.

    “We are working as diligently as we can, knowing that we can’t displace people,” Shapiro added. “We take care of our tenants. That is what we do.”

    No Rental Certificates

    Shapiro also said that when Lexvest bought the five buildings, “we moved to make the property safe and code compliant.” He said that Provincetown’s board of health “went through all the buildings.”

    But town health and building records do not include any sign of health inspections of any residential units on the property dating back to the decades when the Edwards family owned it.

    Health Director Lezli Rowell said she had walked through the properties one time since Lexvest acquired them but “only for the purpose of counting how many bedrooms there were for wastewater flow.”

    A residential unit above the Governor Bradford restaurant.

    Rowell also said that Lexvest does not currently have rental certificates for the properties, which have been required by the board of health since 2005. That regulation states that property owners cannot rent their property “to be used for human habitation without first obtaining a Rental Certificate from the Board of Health.”

    To apply for a certificate, an applicant must certify that the property complies with sanitation regulations, including operable and secure windows and kitchen facilities in good repair. That checklist, however, is “an honor system,” Rowell said. The health department does not conduct automatic inspections as part of the certification process.

    Aaron Hobart, the town’s code compliance officer, said that Lexvest has not applied for rental certificates since it acquired the properties in April 2022 because “part of the transfer of the property was allowing them time to do certain upgrades before issuing a certificate.”

    When asked when the town would require Lexvest to apply for rental certificates, Hobart said, “We will be sending out letters this week, which they will be a part of.”

    Rowell said that the Independent had brought the matter to the town’s attention.

    Rowell also said that she would be “flagging those [units] for inspection when the rental certificate applications come in. And the building department wants to look at a few things about decking, structure, and electrical.”

    Provincetown has contracted with a third-party vendor, Granicus, to help with enforcement for short-term rental certificates, which now cost $750 per year. Long-term rental certificates, which still cost only $300 for three years, have been harder to regulate, Rowell said.

    “We haven’t been able to develop a program to capture them; we’re just getting them as they come to our attention,” she said.

    Town Manager Alex Morse said last October that the fee increase on short-term rental certificates could generate upwards of $750,000 per year. Board of health chair Susan Troyan said that some of that money could go toward routine inspections.

    “One of the things we’ve talked about is freeing up that money to do random inspections on longer-term rentals, even if we haven’t heard of anything,” Troyan said.

    For now, Rowell said, the health department can only conduct inspections “based on a trigger,” such as a complaint or a discrepancy in an application. “Unless somebody says something, we often don’t know about it,” Troyan said.

    Troyan also said that “tenants can rest assured that if a complaint comes to us, we will try to get the landlord to bring the unit into compliance without risking their displacement.”

    The Prince of Whales

    One place where the Lexvest Group has been able to make major improvements is the Prince of Whales cottage colony at 104 Shore Road in North Truro, which it bought in December 2021 for $1,375,000.

    Renovated cottages at the Prince of Whales at 104 Shore Road in North Truro are now vacation rentals.

    At that time, Lexvest already owned a collection of hotels, motels, and short-term rental properties here, including the Cape Colony Inn and the Breakwater Hotel in Provincetown, three single-family vacation rentals on Shore Road in North Truro, and two other cottage colonies at 618 and 640 Shore Road.

    According to the Provincetown and Truro assessors’ databases, the combined assessed value of those properties, along with the Prince of Whales and the Governor Bradford complex, is $27.9 million.

    The previous owner of the Prince of Whales, Fred Sateriale, rented out the 26 units there, including 17 free-standing cottages and two larger buildings, to seasonal workers. It was fondly nicknamed “Little Jamaica” by the many Jamaican workers who lived there during summer seasons.

    In February 2022, Shapiro told the Independent that “our foremost goal is to provide housing for the workforce that we need,” but that because the sale price of the property was considerable, it would be “a balance of providing workforce housing and some vacation rentals” going forward.

    All 17 cottages are now short-term vacation rentals. The company markets them as having “modern, newly renovated accommodations focusing on comfort and charm.” The two larger buildings house 18 Lexvest employees, Shapiro said.

    Prices for the cottages currently range from $263 to $323 per night, according to listings on Airbnb.

    An Airbnb listing from July 31, 2023 for one of the cottages at Prince of Whales.

    The Independent could not establish an exact timeline — but the Prince of Whales cottages were being overhauled around the same time that Buryj was telling his landlords about the broken stove and window in his unit at the Governor Bradford complex.

    The tenant at that property who wished to remain anonymous still has a broken oven and refrigerator.

    Shapiro told the Independent last year that he had been reluctant to get involved in real estate on Cape Cod because it had always been his place to relax. But he also said he felt like “a doctor driving by a bleeding patient,” because he “had the tools and the ability to improve the neighborhood,” he said.

    LANDMARK

    An Entire Downtown Block Is Sold

    The Governor Bradford and 26 rooms for employees go to the Lexvest Group of Maynard

    By

    PROVINCETOWN — Donald R. Edwards bent low as he made his way through a child-size opening between the kitchen and the bar at the Governor Bradford Restaurant. When asked why he has forced bartenders to crouch through a waist-high portal to bring food to customers, Edwards explained, “I didn’t want to cut the painting.”

    A close look at the rear wall of the dining room reveals a mural by James Wingate Parr. The very same piece of driftwood featured in it hangs from the ceiling next to the painting, Edwards pointed out. His father, Donald V. Edwards, had the mural made when he opened the place in 1959 as the Chef’s Restaurant. Like many others of his dad’s favored adornments — the tin ceiling, antique knee walls that may or may not have come from a ship, nautical portals, farming tools — the mural, said Edwards, 74, could not be altered. He said his father, and before that his grandfather, John “Chef” Edwards, an Azorean living in Provincetown by way of Fall River, had done business on that corner of Standish and Commercial streets beginning in the 1940s.

    A few changes have taken place since Edwards took over the Bradford from his father in 1973. A big one just happened on April 15.

    Donald Edwards at the Governor Bradford the day before he sold the place. (Photos by K.C. Myers)

    Edwards sold the Bradford and four surrounding residential and commercial buildings in Provincetown’s center to the Lexvest Group, a real estate development and management company with properties throughout the state, including hotels and rental homes in Provincetown and Truro. The total sale price: $6.95 million.

    Lexvest President Eric Shapiro said he does not plan major changes this year. But change is afoot for the maintenance-deprived buildings. On April 14, a contractor knocked down the staircase leading to the rickety balcony over the Bradford.

    “Don and his family have been great contributors to the community,” Shapiro said. But the property “is tired and needs work, capital, and a vision — and that is what we do.”

    26 Rooms for Workers

    Edwards learned early on how to keep neighbors from complaining about a loud bar: buy the surrounding properties.

    “No one complains if your neighbors are your own people,” Edwards said.

    The sale included three mixed-use commercial buildings at 312-314 Commercial St., 322 Commercial St., and 3 Standish St. Together, they have 21 bedrooms, according to assessor’s records. Business tenants include the Bradford, Mooncusser Tattoo & Piercing Studio, Mom’s Print Shop, How Bazaar, and Dorian Studios. There are also two houses in the deal, at 10 Freeman St. and 318 Commercial St.

    Edwards said his 99-year-old father lives at 318 Commercial and will remain via a lease. But the other building is worker housing with five bedrooms and four baths.

    All but two of these apartments house the cooks, bartenders, and other staff of the Bradford, Edwards said. They are all currently being offered month-to-month leases by Lexvest with slight rent increases, said Dana Danzel, who has been hosting the Bradford’s Drag Karaoke sessions five days a week in summer and weekends all year for the past two decades.

    “I live above the restaurant,” Danzel said. “A lot of people depend on housing. If we all lose our housing, they will have no one to work for them, because there is no place to live.”

    Shapiro said the tenants can remain with no changes for this year, but the future is unknown. “At some point we will put a business plan together,” Shapiro said. “We have not done that yet.”

    Drag Karaoke Stays

    Bartender Elizabeth Cabral grew up in the apartment above the Bradford. After a time away, she returned to Provincetown in 1996 and for three weeks rented a closet for $200 in the same apartment her family once lived in, Cabral said. “It had a kid’s mattress in it, and my feet stuck out the door.”

    Now she doesn’t live in employee housing. But the Bradford “has been like a living room to me and to most of us,” she said. “We’re sort of like family. It feels like the end of an era.”

    The bar, once known as “straight,” for fishermen and carpenters, has been “mixed for a long time,” said Sami, who would not divulge his last name. He is also known by locals as Hollywood and has been a regular since 2003.

    The former Newbury Street stylist used to call this block “my Portuguese run” — he would pass through it as fast as possible in platform heels. But then he said he got “disrespected” in the gay bars and found himself a comfortable spot at the Bradford.

    “It is rustic, rugged, and it has evolved, like Provincetown,” Sami said.

    Sami, a.k.a. Hollywood, is a regular at the Bradford.

    The new bar owners, who will lease the Bradford from Lexvest, are two couples: Jamie Lewis and Collin Kolisko, who worked as general manager and head sushi chef at Mac’s Seafood restaurants, and David Ciccolo and Jackie Ross, owners of the Publick House in Brookline.

    The Bradford closed on April 13. Before opening this summer, the owners plan to renovate the 150-seat restaurant interior and create a beer garden on the 70-seat patio, Ciccolo said. The plans include more renovations next winter; they would like to keep it open year-round, “if it is sustainable,” he said.

    “We cannot elevate the food program with an interior that looks like that,” Ciccolo said. “We are tearing out the bar and adding all new light fixtures. In the off season, all the bathrooms will be brought up to ADA code.”

    The name will stay the same. “You cannot change the name of an icon like that,” Ciccolo said. “The two questions we get the most: Are you keeping the mural, and will you still do Drag Karaoke?” The answer to both is yes. “We would be outcasts if we got rid of Drag Karaoke,” said Ciccolo.

    The singing will, however, start a little later, after dinner service ends at 10 p.m., “so that people won’t be eating Collin’s beautiful food and wondering why someone is singing Journey,” Ciccolo said.

    Edwards credits Danzel for keeping Drag Karaoke a popular institution for over 20 years, though it was writer and performer Ryan Landry who originally conceived the idea. Edwards asked Landry and his husband, Scott Martino, if they would host a karaoke show. Landry said only if they could do it in drag.

    “That made it even more fun,” Edwards said.

    Danzel, Edwards added, “makes people feel comfortable. I’ve had people who sing better than Titus [Danzel’s other name] but none who do a better show.”

    The stage is “like my pulpit — I can preach love and acceptance,” Danzel said.

    The best night ever at the Bradford, for Danzel anyway, was when there were dueling bachelorette parties that ended in a little bar brawl.

    HOUSING

    Truro’s ‘Little Jamaica’ to Become Worker Housing

    Some of the Prince of Whales’s 26 units may be used for vacation rentals

    By

    TRURO — Before Covid-19, summer evenings at 104 Shore Road hummed with restaurant-goers at Terra Luna, and, later in the night, seasonal workers would return to the clapboard cottages on that same property. Officially, this row of housing units goes by the name Prince of Whales. But the workers who lived there summer after summer nicknamed it “Little Jamaica,” recalled Janet “Big Mama” Hewitt.

    Hewitt left Jamaica in 2001 and lived at the Prince of Whales for 16 or so years. She’d spend her days sweeping floors and scrubbing dishes at Provincetown’s Post Office Cafe and Tin Pan Alley. After clocking out, she’d head back to North Truro, pull out a chair, and sit under the stars, shooting the breeze with her neighbors. They’d often cook together and chat while doing loads of laundry outside. They’d play music on people’s birthdays.

    “It reminded me of Jamaica,” Hewitt said. “God, I miss it so much.”

    The cottages at the Prince of Whales in Truro are being renovated for occupancy this summer. The new owner, Lexvest Group, plans to house summer employees in them. (Photo by Jasmine Lu)

    For the past two years, the Prince of Whales has been vacant — a ghost town compared to those lively Little Jamaica days. Mattresses are now scattered about the lot, lying flat on the ground and slumped against cottage walls.

    The cottage colony is scheduled for a makeover soon. On Dec. 20, 2021, the Lexvest Group, a real estate development and investment company based in Maynard, purchased 104 Shore Road from Fred Sateriale for $1,375,000. Lexvest has renovated other cottage colonies up and down Shore Road, converting them into condominiums, including those at East Harbour, the Shoreline, and Sutton Place. The company also runs the Cape Colony Inn and Breakwater Hotel in Provincetown.

    The 26 units in the Prince of Whales’s 17 cottages and two larger buildings will have one of three uses: housing for Lexvest’s own employees, housing for others’ employees, and rentals for vacationers. How these units will be divvied up among these categories has not yet been determined, said Eric Shapiro, Lexvest’s chief executive officer.

    “Our foremost goal is to provide housing for the workforce that we need to operate our business, and if we can provide housing for others, we’ll do that,” Shapiro said. “But it’s a balancing act because Fred, as any owner does, had a financial number that he needed to receive in order to sell this property. And in order to make that work, it’s a balance of providing workforce housing and some vacation rentals.”

    Shapiro said he had not figured out the maximum potential occupancy yet, but “the general rule of thumb,” he said, “is two people per bedroom.”

    Workforce Housing

    Shapiro’s Provincetown and Truro roots date back to his grandfather, who fished here in the 1930s and 1940s and eventually moved his family to the Cape. Shapiro summered here with his children.

    For years, he resisted going into real estate on the Outer Cape. “I was trying to avoid it because it was a place where I came to relax and not work,” he said. “But often I felt like a doctor driving by a bleeding patient. I felt like I had the tools and the ability to improve the neighborhood and community.”

    The Prince of Whales, he said, has an up-to-code septic system. The property’s electrical system is “in pretty good shape,” Shapiro said. Next up for Lexvest is working through a pile of “deferred maintenance” to-dos: cleaning up a fair amount of rot, replacing broken windows, fixing roofs, and “beefing up” some structural components.

    His goal is to have units available for the 2022 season, when Lexvest employs up to 50 people to operate the company’s more than 100 hotel rooms and 30 rental properties. “These people need a place to live that’s affordable,” Shapiro said. “And unfortunately, the area doesn’t have many options, so we’re trying to manage and deal with that ourselves.”

    Lexvest, in the past, has set aside some of its housing stock — “at quite a cost,” Shapiro added — for its own workers. These include spaces in the company’s hotels and rentals.

    “That’s why we decided to purchase the Prince of Whales,” he said. “There are 26 units that will allow us to control our destiny with respect to workforce housing. We’re not planning on tearing down units to build luxury units.”

    Terra Luna, meanwhile, will “continue to operate,” Shapiro said. “No changes expected.”

    An Ode to ‘Little Jamaica’

    Sateriale took over the 104 Shore Road property in 1986, just as the H-2B visa program began. The same year, state Sen. Julian Cyr’s parents moved their restaurant Adrian’s to where Terra Luna is today. They operated it until 1992.

    “The first H-2B visa employees who worked in my parents’ restaurant actually lived at the Prince of Whales during the summers,” Cyr told the Independent.

    Rent at the Prince of Whales, Hewitt recalled, was originally $60 per week, but Sateriale gave tenants leeway if money was tight, particularly in the springtime when businesses were revving back up. “No rush,” Hewitt remembered him telling her neighbors. “When you have the money, you can pay me first month’s rent.”

    Sateriale, who sold the Breakwater Hotel to Shapiro, declined to comment for this article.

    Eventually, as the repairs and maintenance on the property began to mount, Sateriale needed to bump up the rent to $100 per week. “But we had no problem with that,” Hewitt said. “He took good care of us.”

    Shapiro declined to provide an estimate of monthly rates at the Prince of Whales when it is available for occupancy.

    Last season, with the cottages closed down, Hewitt went from paying $400 monthly in Little Jamaica to $500 monthly to sleep on a couch. Currently, she’s working in New York City, but she hopes to circle back to Commercial Street this summer — if she can find a place to live.

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