A Boston real estate giant whose condemned buildings and hundreds of tenant complaints were revealed in a Spotlight article has purchased more than 100 apartments in century-old complexes in Somerville.

Anwar Faisal, subject of a 2014 Boston Globe Spotlight Team investigation, purchased several apartment complexes along Summer Street near Spring Hill last month and said he plans to buy more in the city when something comes available.

He told the Journal he planned to keep rental prices stable for veterans, disabled, elderly or people on social security currently living in the buildings, but will raise the rents to market rate of its existing working professional tenants.

“People working in the financial district, they should be getting the market,” Faisal said. “Somerville has a good mayor, a hard worker. They have a good [Board of Aldermen] there and it is coming on the market next to the financial district and it’s a hot market.”

According to a 2014 article in the Spotlight Team’s “Shadow Campus” series, Faisal, a Brookline-resident, has become rich off purchasing and operating apartment complexes around Boston that often houses students. But those units were often rented out to students in poor condition, overcrowded, and often in violation of safety and building codes.

The Globe found Faisal is one of the most complained about landlords that cater to students in Boston, receiving hundreds of city code enforcement tickets for violations outside his buildings and 16 complaints by tenants filed with the state’s attorney general’s office since 2008. Current and former tenants also complained of bedbugs, rats, leaks next to electrical outlets and radiators that raised temperatures over 90 degrees.

Faisal purchased a pair of adjacent 116 year-old apartment complexes on Feb. 1, a four-story 155- 157 Summer St. complex for $19.25 million and a three-story building at 44 Central St. and 151-153, and 163 Summer St. next door at $11.75 million, according to the register of deeds and city assessor’s website.

Tenant concerns

Last week, notices were left at the entrances of the complexes informing tenants about the transfer of ownership and management and to to call Alpha Management Corp. with any issues. Alpha is the management group operated by Faisal that oversees his buildings and was also detailed in the Globe article.

Residents at the 157 Summer St. building told the Journal they were concerned about their new landlord but haven’t yet seen much of a change in maintenance service.

“He seems like a piece of work,” Cameron Lownie, whose lived a two-bedroom apartment in the building since August. ”This is a gorgeous building that had been maintained really well and it would be a shame to see it lose any of that.”

Lownie said he and his three roommates have been planning to move out of the building when their lease expires in June for a while, but the news of Faisal’s purchase would have prompted him to do so if they weren’t. Kelly Stedem, who has lived in a single bedroom unit in the building since July said having Faisal as a landlord is “disconcerting” but thinks Alpha did a good job clearing snow from in front of the sidewalk of the building during last week’s blizzard.

“At least under the old management company they were pretty quick and responsive to fix things so we haven’t seen much here because it hasn’t been long enough,” Stedem told the Journal. “It seems like they made a concerted effort to remove the snow during the blizzards pretty quickly. There was somebody out there shoveling snow during the storm.”

Rents up 5 to 7 percent

Faisal said he planned on raising rents in the buildings for working professionals to market rate prices. He said he is unsure how many units are currently being rented below market rate and said he would raise rents up to five to seven percent the first year, if they are further below the market. He said he won’t raise rents at all on an unknown number of veterans, elderly, and disabled tenants and tenants on social security living in the buildings and hopes to attract small families into some of the units.

But market rate is unaffordable for most Somerville residents. According to a December housing inventory report by Newton-based LDS Consulting Group, the average monthly rent in the city was $2,350 per month last September, an amount that is unaffordable for nearly 75 percent of the city’s renters.

The LDS study said the average rent of a two-bedroom apartment in Spring Hill was $2,350 per month last September. Lownie said they are renting their two-bed apartment for $2,000 per month. Stedem said she and her roommate are paying $1,750 per month for her single bedroom unit, which includes a living room, bathroom and a kitchen. Another 157 Summer St. tenant Nathan McElrath said he is paying a little less than $1,500 for his studio apartment.

“After reading about Alpha Management’s policy… I assumed the rent was going to go up,” Stedem said. “We were already thinking about moving out no matter what but certainly if the rent gets raised we won’t stay because its already pretty expensive I think for the area.”

History of poor maintenance

According to the Boston Globe article, Faisal owns more than 2,000 apartment in and around Boston, most of which are around college campuses.

The Globe detailed a number of issues at Faisal’s apartments in Boston during its investigation. In the article, one Northeastern student’s apartment had doors with gaping holes in them and were ripped from the frames, kitchen cabinets that were broken, stale beer puddles on wood floors, and fire detectors that dangled from the ceiling. The building was later condemned for having 26 units instead of the city-authorized 25 units, the article said.

Faisal said he will keep his new Somerville buildings the buildings up to code and well maintained. He also said articles characterizing him as a slumlord were untrue and claimed the media has “twisted” his words in the past. He said most building violations from the City of Boston in the past have been for having overflowing dumpsters and never any serious violations like faulty smoke detectors or leaky roofs.

“All landlords have violations with kids. What do you expect to do when there’s thousands of kids?” Faisal said. “We’ve had some health issues, minor issues. And as a landlord everybody has these issues. Big landlords have them especially when you have these kids.”

He said he has added extra dumpsters at his buildings and resolved the past issues at his buildings. He added, in the past rooms were often left uncleaned or in poor shape when new tenants arrived during the Sept. 1 move-in date because crews from Alpha Management were overwhelmed. He said he has since hired extra contractors to assist Alpha in cleaning and preparing the buildings during the small transitional period.

He said the leases for residents living his new buildings end at various points throughout the year and will have no problem getting them properly conditioned by the time new tenants move in.

Sean Gresh, a Northeastern University adjunct professor who lives at a two-bedroom apartment at 157 Summer St. said he is optimistic Alpha will properly maintain the building. He said he was impressed by the maintenance workers who recently replaced the locks on all of the doors throughout the building.

“I don’t know about problems he’s had in the past but I think he’s off to a good start,” Gresh told the Journal. “I’m rooting for the guy because he bought a first class building and I expect first class service.”

Follow Danielle McLean on Twitter @DMcLeanWL or email her at dmclean@wickedlocal.com.