Problems with My Apartment

 This article appeared in one of our local papers. We contacted the journalist in protest to how we were being treated by the management of our apartment building.

Chestnut Square’s Promises Fall Behind With Construction Lapses

Chestnut Square opened full of promise, but water leaks and secrecy have residents fearing what’s behind the walls.

When Chestnut Square opened in 2016, it was ripe with promises. It would provide tenants with a boutique hotel living environment. There would be exclusive amenities and maintenance-free units.

“We had a vision of creating a lifestyle not seen in our region,” development partner David Della Porta said in a statement at the complex’s grand opening.

Nearly a decade since that announcement was made, many of those promises still hold up. When you enter, you walk into the impressive grand lobby. The auxiliary rooms are lovely too. There are plenty of amenities, including a swimming pool with sundeck, a courtyard lounge with a fire pit and grilling station, and a fitness center with yoga room. Plus, there are hotel-like concierge services, indoor and outdoor bars, and various tenant-only special events. Then there is the location. Almost anything you want downtown is only a few short blocks away.

“The friends we made, the amenities, the location, it’s wonderful, but that doesn’t change the question of how it was built,” said resident Rich Heiland, who moved to the complex with his wife in 2021. Rich, along with at least three of his fellow tenants, has concerns about what’s going on behind the walls at one of West Chester’s most elite complexes.

“I’m just so angry. I’ve paid $160,000 to date to live here,” said Bridget Kelly, who moved to Chestnut Square in 2017 and until recently hasn’t had a complaint with the complex or its management company, Bozzuto. “I’ve never missed a payment. I pay attention to keep the place clean. I have worked to be a good citizen in this community. I want to know because I’ve had cancer. Do I need to go and get an X-ray? I don’t think that’s a lot to ask.”    In May of 2023, Keith Stonefelt relocated from California to West Chester. Site unseen, he signed a lease on a one-bedroom Chestnut Square apartment.  During the walk-through, he noticed a water stain on the ceiling. He was told it had been fixed. The ceiling would be repainted, and he wouldn’t have to worry about it. It was. So, he didn’t. Then, in January, after a heavy storm, his apartment flooded. “What happens is the water leaks from up above and comes down the siding. I’m on the first floor here, which is concrete. The water hits the concrete and has nowhere to go, so it came into my apartment,” he said.   About an inch of water covered the living room floor. “All the furniture had to be removed. The carpet was taken out and cleaned,” he said. Maintenance reps also removed the damaged drywall and brought in fans to dry the rest. Then everything was put back and repainted, a process that took about a day and a half to complete.  However, when the maintenance reps tore the drywall out, they noticed what appeared to be mold. “[Company management] told me they are going to spray for the mold. I think they used the word mold,” said Keith. They did spray, putting Keith up in a hotel for two days. It was an inconvenience, but it was tolerable. Then the flooding happened again.   “About two months later, my apartment flooded again because they hadn’t fixed the problem. The problem is the siding. The problem is the roof. The water just keeps coming,” said Keith.  Betty Thornton and her husband moved into a third-floor two-bedroom apartment in May of 2024. They had no issues until a hazmat crew showed up to repair some nail pops.  “They knew that they were coming in here for mold, they called the [Maximum] Restoration crew in. They told them to bring hazmat [suits], bring signs, bring plastic. They did not choose to tell us. Trust eroded,” said Betty.  Timeline of Events Tenants were told maintenance was fixing “nail pops” caused by the construction. Then crews in hazmat suits showed up.  So, how did West Chester’s premiere rental destination end up with men in hazmat suits lining the walls with plastic? The issue may go all the way back to its construction.  “Chestnut Square received reports of intermittent water intrusion in the façade around certain areas of the balconies and promptly engaged contractors to investigate and remediate,” Bozzuto Regional Associate Cindy Gogluizza shared in an email statement sent last week. Bridget, however, thinks the issues go farther back than that.  “A year or two [after the complex opened], because they had so many apartments flooding [on the east side of the building] along Patton Avenue, they took the whole side [of the building] off and did to some extent what they did here, and if you look now, it all has coral color aluminum siding. That used to all be red brick,” she said. “So from day three the buildings have been leaking,” she added.  And they just haven’t stopped. “Well, in Feb/March of this year, my apartment flooded again,” said Keith. “Third time. I’m talking noticeable standing water.” This time, however, he was advised to wait on the rebuild because Bozzuto was ready to address the root problem.  In April, Chestnut Square Apartments announced it would begin repair work.  “As you know, we have been anticipating repairs to our courtyard area balconies. These repairs are scheduled to start on April 15th,” began a letter sent to all residents. The letter gives no reason for the repairs, nor any details on what repairs were to be completed. Just directions to remove balcony furniture and avoid using the Patton Ave. parking lot.  Shortly after, a crane was hoisted over the exterior walls of the complex, and work began to remove and replace the courtyard balconies. The courtyard, pool, sun decks, fire pit, and dog run were closed to tenants. An email sent on April 10 estimated the job would take a week per section. With 10 sections to complete, the job should have taken roughly 10 weeks to finish. By June 30, they had one section finished.  The work was loud and intrusive. The effects were beginning to take their toll.  “The current conditions verge on unlivable for many of us, and it is unacceptable that such a massive project was initiated without adequate planning, communication, or consideration for the residents who call this building home,” Bridget wrote in an email to Bozzuto CEO Tony Bozzuto dated May 20, 2025.  That same day, she received a response from Cindy. “It is never our intention to disrupt our residents in their homes, although it is sometimes unavoidable,” she wrote. She blamed unforeseen circumstances and delays to the original repair schedule for the “prolonged” construction timeline. She also announced that construction would pause at the end of June and resume in late September, so that the pool area could open.  Three weeks after the original round of construction concluded, ten out of the 19 impacted units received a letter from the Chestnut Square Management Team stating that a construction team would be visiting the following week to perform “repairs to the inside of your apartments” caused by the balcony replacement project. Listed repairs included: “nail pops and other drywall disturbances.”  One week later, crews showed up at Betty’s apartment wearing hazmat suits.  “So, I’ll just let you know what happened,” she said. “Sunday night, we went and put painters' tape on the 46 nail pops we had. Then we learned that some drywall would have to be removed near the back door. We went, ‘Why would they be removing drywall to fix nail pops?’”  On Monday morning, a Bozzuto construction representative arrived at her apartment with a team from Maximum Restoration, a licensed mold remediation company. “These guys start to suit up in hazmat materials, and they put plastic up in our living room,” said Betty. She and her husband were never informed as to why they were there.  “They said the [Bozzuto] construction person would be here at all times. They were not. So my husband and I sat here in the apartment while they were doing this,” she said. Betty and her husband watched while the workers completed their remediation efforts. “We sat there, no mask. The workers were hazmatted but they didn’t offer us any masks or anything.”   “This is where my concern is about tenants' rights to know,” she said. “Now you’re looking for mold, but you’re not doing anything to protect your tenants.”  A water damage evaluation would later show Maximum Restoration completed evaluations at all 10 of the apartments that received the “nail pops” letter. The evaluation summary indicated the company only found “minor instances” of suspected “organic growth.”  “Based on our professional experience, the damage to the exterior walls of the courtyard units does not appear to be of a nature that would have impacted the health and safety of the building's occupants. Furthermore, the building has completed all recommended cleanup activities, and there is no reason to believe any habitability issues currently exist,” it stated.  “Our contractors have confirmed the absence of any habitability concerns, and are in the midst of completing the necessary repairs,” Cindy reiterated last week.   That report, however, did not come from Cindy or the Chestnut Square management team. It came from the Borough of West Chester after Bridget submitted a Right to Know request to the Borough. Unlike with lead-based paints, when it comes to issues of mold, Pennsylvania does not have a specific disclosure law. However, if a tenant were to develop health issues related to mold exposure, the landlord could face lawsuits for failure to warn, especially if they knew about the condition and didn’t disclose it.  Bridget, a cancer survivor, has requested the full report of the evaluation done on her apartment at least a half-dozen times at the behest of her doctor. “I’m not getting it,” she said regarding the full report. Instead, she is being asked to trust Bozzuto’s assessment that all is fine. Bridgid would just like to see that for herself. “I am talking, have I been living with black mold, and do I need to be on top of that? No, I don’t have a right to that [information],” she said.  Rich, too, is worried about his health. He offered to have his apartment independently inspected, but the management team wouldn’t let him do it. “They said they would have their people check it out in October. Maybe there is nothing wrong with me, but I would like to know,” he added. Keith, for his part still waiting on the promised repairs to his apartment. As of the last report, they are scheduled to begin today.  “They’ve known about it for at least two years, and they’ve effectively done nothing for me. Now my biggest concern is a health concern. If I have mold in my apartment, I would like to be told about it,” he said. It is the lack of communication and transparency more than anything that has led residents to go public in search of answers, but there are risks.  “It’s on our mind all the time, and it doesn’t need to be on our mind all the time,” said Bridget. “And it’s on everybody’s mind, but everybody is afraid to speak up because they don’t have to renew our leases. So in speaking with you, I run the risk of not getting my lease renewed, and it’s a big price to pay.”  After taking a summer hiatus, work to repair the remaining balconies began this week.  Outside of those currently living at Chestnut Square (and perhaps those considering a near-term move), the most pressing question is - are we at risk of this happening again?  E. Khan Development, which owns Chestnut Square, currently has two additional complexes planned for the Borough. One at 250 E. Market Street (formerly Rubenstein’s) and another at 330 W. Market St. (formerly Mitch’s Gym.) Both are expected to follow the Chestnut Square game plan, high-end apartments heavy on the amenities.  As far as I can tell, Bozzuto neither manages nor has at this time been contracted to build any other units in the Borough. I did pose this question and a few other follow-ups to Cindy. She had no further comment on the matter.  The two companies do have a history. In 2012, 237 King Partners, owned by E. Khan Development members Eli Khan, David Della Porta, and Gary Toll, turned to Bozzuto Construction Company to build the highly anticipated Eastside Flats, a 215-unit apartment complex erected in the heart of Malvern. In 2019, seven years after the project was complete, 237 King Partners filed an arbitration claim against Bozzuto and subcontractor Dale Waterproofing, claiming a failure to install two-stage drains and a waterproofing membrane on each of the three rooftop terraces. As a result, the “owner has been forced to contend with water intrusion throughout the property.”  “There is a lot of water damage and mold on the outside balconies. Wood that is pulling away from the foundation because of water damage,” one Eastside Flats resident recently shared on ApartmentRatings.com. Despite rumors that similar legal action has been taken against Chestnut Square, I could not find evidence of anything. It is possible that similar complaints were resolved in arbitration, a process often embraced for its discretion. Regardless of how they happened, according to Bozzuto Associate Cindy Gogluizza, the issues that did exist are being corrected. “Chestnut Square will work to resolve promptly, and is optimistic that the work being performed will prevent any further issues,” she said.  As for future projects, West Chester Building and Housing Director Aaron Flook is not worried. While he was not here during the initial build, his team has been proactively monitoring the rebuilds.  “Latent issues that may not be visible at the time of construction do occur in all construction projects and may take several years to become apparent,” he said. “This is why the Borough is constantly reviewing and improving its processes and training.  I am confident that the Borough of West Chester has the proper processes and personnel in place to handle the level and complexity of development occurring now and into the future,” he added. As to when residents will get some closure, that could still be a while. Round two of repairs begins today. Editor’s note: After notifying management that she had spoken with a reporter, Bridget finally received a copy of the Maximum Restoration Report specific to her unit. It does not go into great detail as to what was found, simply to say, “suspected organic growth” was found, but it does include the full list of remedative actions taken, such as “fogging,” disinfectant treatments, and HEPA vacuuming to “remove any suspected fungal particulates that may have migrated and settled on adjacent surfaces.” As of Aug. 4, the report states, “proper water damage restoration” had been completed.