He Takes Blight, Makes Right

NORTH HILLS —  In his tailored suit, and behind the wheel of his 12-cylinder snow-white BMW, Richard Burns looks like the slumlord from Central Casting as he tours his properties in a gritty neighborhood in the northeast San Fernando Valley.

But ask his largely Latino, working-class tenants, and police who patrol here, and they’ll tell you Burns is anything but.

Over the past few months, Burns and his associate, Tim Ryan, have purchased eight apartment buildings on Orion, Langdon and Columbus avenues, some of the Valley’s most gang- and drug-infested streets.

Each having been considered the worst on its block, the buildings have all received new paint. Where before there was dirt littered with beer cans and drug paraphernalia, now there is grass where children can play. Inside, vacant units have been completely remodeled, including new carpet, fresh paint and new appliances.

Most important, perhaps, Burns has rousted drug dealers from his buildings and hired a private armed security detail to make sure they don’t come back. He is also encouraging other building owners to contribute a modest fee to a security fund that would enable additional guards to patrol their buildings as well.

For the guards, who are empowered to make arrests on the properties they patrol, business is booming. Security guards Sarkis Terteryan and Hacop Aslanyan told how they made five crack cocaine-related arrests in their first 10 minutes on the job at one building whose owner recently contracted for their services.

Earning High Marks From All Quarters

Catalina Figueroa has lived in one of the buildings Burns purchased on Columbus Avenue for 11 years. In the few months since Burns bought the building, Figueroa said, street thugs have stopped congregating outside the front gate, and she feels safer.

“It’s like living in a new building,” said Leonardo Garcia, a janitor whose family has lived in the building eight years. “It has a better image.”

Los Angeles Police Department Officer Ernie Jimenez, the Devonshire Division’s senior lead officer in the area, greets any landlord’s promises with skepticism. He’s heard it all before.

“But these guys have been tremendous,” Jimenez said. “So far, they’ve kept their word on everything. They’re going beyond what even we as police would recommend, which is what I like to see.”

Jimenez likes to see anything positive in a neighborhood that’s been characterized by negatives for years.

Despite some progress by police and citizens’ groups, an area smaller than a square mile--bounded by the San Diego Freeway on the west, Burnet Avenue on the east, Nordhoff Street on the north and Parthenia Street on the south--amassed some astonishing statistics as recently as last year.

Jimenez said the area--about half the size of Pierce College--accounted for 34% of narcotics arrests in the Valley last year, and for 70% of reported violent crimes in the LAPD’s 54-square-mile Devonshire Division.

The area is home to three gangs, who rent street corners to 10 other gangs from outside the area for the purpose of selling drugs. Managing an apartment building in the neighborhood can be like working in a combat zone.

“I’ve had managers call me on a pay phone, crying,” Jimenez said. “They’re telling me the drug dealers have tapped their phone and are reading their mail, that they’ve sent someone to their kid’s school to beat the kid up. Some of them only last about three months.”

But Jimenez said an involved owner, and armed security guards, can boost a building manager’s confidence immeasurably.

He said preliminary statistics show a 50% drop in reported crime in the area in October and November of this year, which he attributes in part to the no-nonsense attitude at Burns’ buildings.

“It’s made a significant difference,” Jimenez said. “I wish I could provide him with a list of 15 other buildings to buy.”

If all this sounds too good to be true, Burns acknowledges that he’s no philanthropist. He’s in it for the money. He raises the rent after making improvements, but only modestly. For example, a renovated two-bedroom apartment in his Langdon Avenue building that had rented for $550 a month, now goes for $650. Increases of about $100 are typical.

Playing to Full Houses

Burns said he has no intention of pricing himself out of his market, which he sees as working-class Latino families. His bet is that such families in search of a clean, well-lighted place will clamor to rent from him.

“Even the worst buildings are virtually full,” he said. “There’s an inherent demand.”

Burns was the CEO of a San Diego-based high-tech medical firm that dealt in electronic medical records. He retired in 1993.

Bored with retirement, and ever the entrepreneur, Burns brainstormed with Ryan about ways to make money, and came up with investing in “special circumstances” real estate--usually meaning properties available at rock-bottom prices, but which have potential to gain value. Ryan earned a real estate license and began searching for properties to buy. That search led them, among other places, to North Hills.

Burns said he put up $3.2 million of his own money to buy the eight buildings, and will probably spend almost a million more on renovations. He said he has no delusions about North Hills becoming Beverly Hills any time soon.

“I envision it being a safe community for family-oriented people,” he said. “That’s my goal.”

Based in Rancho Santa Fe in San Diego County, Burns and Ryan have been closely involved with the renovation process, making the drive north at least once a week. They use the Denny’s restaurant on Roscoe Boulevard near the 405 Freeway as their “office,” for meetings with police, City Council representatives and other officials.

Units That Can Meet the Ultimate Test

At 62, Burns has a youthful exuberance as he toured his new building on Orion Avenue on a recent day.

“New. New. New,” Burns said as he strode through the courtyard, pointing quickly from side to side at landscaping, freshly painted walls and a repaired swimming pool. “We did all that. This one was double ugly. It was the worst on the block. Now, it’s the best.”

A man who lives in one of the richest communities in America, Burns has created a demanding standard for himself in the real estate business.

The test for his rental units, he said is this: “I’d have to be able to live in them myself.”