The Empire of an Ocean Beach Land Lord

Spray Street apartments couldn’t be in a nicer location.

Originally posted on June 10, 2016

On Saturday, June 4th, activists from a renters’ advocate organization called San Diego Tenants United held a rally at the foot of Newport Avenue, where among other issues in the speeches and testimonials given by organizers, supporters and OB tenants, the name of a notorious OB slumlord was mentioned several times: Michael Mills.

Mills owns a lot of property in Ocean Beach – many rental units. And he has a long history buying up properties, raising rents, and maintaining sub-standard living conditions. In fact, back in 1998, a judge sentenced Mills to a year in jail after he pleaded no contest to 10 charges of maintaining substandard rental properties in Ocean Beach.

Renters’ rights rally, June 4, 2016, on the grass at the foot of Newport. (SDTU)

The judge also placed Mills on three years probation, and one of his conditions of probation was to hire a professional management company to bring his properties up to code.

At the sentencing, the Deputy City Attorney hailed the victory over the slumlord, particularly since many of his tenants were low-income families with children. San Diego Source (1-28-1998)

Rumors have swirled for years about how many rental units Mills actually owns, so we set out the other day to find just a few of his properties.  And what we found initially were four sets of units that Mills either currently owns or has owned in the past – four properties that had a total of 51 units.

At least, then, we found a corner of Mills’ OB Empire, and began documenting them. And we hope to find and document more.

Rear of Spray Street apartments facse the ocean.

Choice Property: the Spray Street Apartments “On the Beach”

You can’t get much closer to the beach and the sand than Mills’ Spray Street apartments, a two-story, 12-unit complex right on the grass and right across from the Pacific Ocean.

A choice piece of property.

They used to be much more dilapidated than they appear now, so perhaps Mills did complete his probation successfully.

Voltaire units – behind a fence that is not up to code.

Voltaire Street Units

Mills owns or has owned 4 units on the 4800 block of Voltaire.

4 units on Voltaire

Two houses are in the front, and two units are in the back, both protected by a high fence that is at least 6 feet high – and against code, by the way.

5 units on Lotus

Lotus Street

Over on Lotus, just around the corner from “Mother’s” on Bacon Street, is another Mills’ property. This one contains 5 units joined by a wide concrete drive-way.

Muir Street apartments on corner with Ebers.

La Creme de la Creme – Half a Block on Muir

What is or must have been for decades Mills’ flagship property, his creme de la creme, is nearly half a block on the 4600 block of Muir Street.

Mills’ property extends for nearly half a block.

On that block – and facing Ebers – is a series of five pastel-painted, two-story apartment buildings all in a row, with courtyards between them. Here are 30 units with alley garages.

Court yard

Of note, when the TV series, “Terriers” was being filmed in OB a number of years ago, one of the apartments was used for interior shots. And right around that time, Mills had all the buildings repainted in their current pastel hues.

The alley line up.

Mills sent two of his property managers to the rally for rent control to check out who was participating and defend their boss. It was clear that some tenants felt intimidated by their presence. One of Mills’ paid staff even interrupted a speaker.

If you or a friend is a tenant of Michael Mills, please contact the OB Rag confidentially at obragblog@gmail.com .  We plan on continuing the documentation of the Empire of an OB Land Lord.