Real estate veteran Ozzie Ramirez purchased Beauregard Apartments, 415 N. Beauregard St., Alvin, in April 2020, renaming them Vista View Apartments from a line in the 1992 film “White Men Can’t Jump.”
“My first day collecting rent, I want to say there were 14 tenants, and of those tenants, at least five were under the influence of some kind of substance,” Ramirez said.
While Ramirez said he personally felt the purchase was a sound business decision, he’d received community feedback that the apartments were irredeemable.
“When we post that we were renting out rooms on Talk of Alvin [Facebook group], we would just get roasted that this was the meth capital of Alvin, and nothing but drug deals go on there,” Ramirez said.
Ramirez said he estimated that no work had been done on the property in 20 years. In most of the units, the ceilings were brown and collapsing. The gas lines and underground plumbing had to be completely redone.
Additionally, the sheetrock needed to be replaced, and new showers and cabinets needed to be installed. To date, Ramirez estimates he’s invested $420,000 into renovating the apartments. The renovations began last summer, and the major renovations, such as plumbing and gas lines, were fixed the fall.
The apartment complex has 28 units and seven tenants, Ramirez said before adding that rent started at $695 when he purchased the property, but he’s raised it to $750. Ramirez said he purchased the property for around $900,000 and aims to have the property close to 80% rented out, which would allow him to collect $20,000 in rent monthly.
When he purchased the property, Ramirez requested a call-out report for the apartments, which is a report of how many times the police have been called out to a specific address. He learned the monthly call-outs to the apartments averaged 17, with some months having as many as 30 or 40 call-outs, Ramirez said. The address received 84 call-outs in 2019, 55 call-outs in 2020, 48 call-outs in 2021 and eight call-outs in 2022, according to the reports requested from Alvin Police Department by Community Impact.
Since reopening, Ramirez said the frequency of crime in the complex has gone down significantly, and he’s received positive feedback from the police department, including a police officer who told him he’s turned the place around like nobody else has.
“It’s been one of our worst places, and now we don't have any problems here,” Ramirez said.
