New Lease on Drug-Free Life

Last year, fire code enforcement officers visited the Casa de Calamars apartment complex in Spring Valley regularly, and sheriff’s deputies dropped by more often than mail carriers.

“On the insides, there were walls missing and the sheriffs were up there constantly, coming up here two, three times a day,” said Kim Palmer, who lives in a neighboring complex in the 9700 block of Dale Avenue with her three children.

But on Saturday, Kai Adler, the new owner of the three-building complex, celebrated its reopening. Wearing a fresh coat of paint, the apartments now bear the name Villa de la Paz, which Adler hopes will represent the apartment’s future, despite its troubled past.

“These apartments were kind of like the epitome of what drugs and violence can do to deteriorate a community,” Adler said, standing in front of the beige buildings with teal blue trim.

The complex had been a blight in the middle-class community of Casa de Oro for several years, a haven for drug use and drug sales that had been condemned last March for chronic violation of fire, health and safety codes, said Brian Heyman, a fire inspector with the San Miguel Consolidated Fire Protection District.

“Many of the units were loaded with combustibles, refrigerators, stoves, carpeting and stuff, and had become a dumping place for garbage and all sorts of combustibles by the residents,” he said.

Abandoned cars littered the grounds of the complex, some apartments were buried in trash 3 feet high, motorcycle parts were strewn in some of the units, and electrical extension cords were strung from apartment to apartment, Heyman said.

“It was a dangerous and scary place to visit a year ago at this time,” he said.

“Tenants were living without power and using open flame sources for heating. . . . It was a fire waiting to happen,” Heyman said.

Sergio Ayala, 39, who helped renovate the apartment complex and lives near it, said the apartments were “trash.”

“It looked like they used to cook in the bathtubs. They destroyed this place,” he said.

“I used to see the police helicopters hovering over this place all the time, the noise used to wake me up at 3 a.m.,” Ayala said.

But Adler bought the apartments in September and has since invested more than $400,000 to renovate the 36-unit complex. Each apartment was treated to fresh gray-speckled carpet, new air conditioners and refrigerators.

“It really was just the whole drugs and violence that was here that made it an ugly place, but it didn’t need to be,” said Adler, who said he found more than 300 hypodermic needles while cleaning out the apartments.

About 25 people were evicted from the apartments when it was taken over, and it is unclear where they live now, Adler said.

The 39-year-old Adler, formerly a general contractor specializing in reconstructing fire-damaged buildings, has moved into the complex from his La Jolla Shores home, along with his wife and son.

Last week, the first tenant moved into the two-bedroom apartments, which rent from $525 a month to $625, Adler said.

“This is a classic example of what effective community action and fire code enforcement can do,” Heyman said.