GARDNER — For more than 25 years, Patricia Bergstrom operated her clothing and gifts boutique out of 44 Parker St. During all those years, the rent never changed but the landlord never invested “one penny” into repairs and other maintenance of the building, she said.

Ms. Bergstrom said Dean Marcus of Worcester did nothing to alleviate or prevent problems, including having no heat when the oil ran out, old drafty windows, leaky roof, chipped paint on the ceiling and walls, no running hot water, and basically no air conditioning.

“He was an absent landlord. He collected the rent. That was basically it,” said Ms. Bergstrom, owner of The Velvet Goose, now located at 24 Main St. “He never maintained the building. I never saw him put one penny of investment into that property.”

The 63-year-old city native attributes her decades of tolerance of such poor maintenance to her having been “young and dumb.” She was around 31 when she started her business and moved into the ground floor of the three-story 44 Parker St. building in the late 1980s. Not long after that, Mr. Marcus bought the property at auction and became her landlord. It took Hurricane Sandy ripping parts of the patched roof off the building in October 2012, destroying about $15,000 worth of merchandise, for her to finally make a move. This is her sixth year at 24 Main St., a short walk from where she started her business.

“The hurricane wasn’t that bad. The roof was that bad,” she recalled. “It didn’t occur to me how bad I had it until I moved into a spot where the landlord is responsible ... where the building is maintained.” She was allowed to pay the same rent she paid Mr. Marcus for 25 years and that hasn’t increased.

Mr. Marcus has a long history of buying commercial properties in prime downtown locations and letting them deteriorate. After years of only being able to get him to make Band-aid type repairs, the city last year used a $400,000 Site Readiness grant from MassDevelopment to purchase two of Mr. Marcus’ buildings: 42-50 Parker St., where Ms. Bergstrom had her business; and 52 Parker St. The city is nearing completion of negotiations with a local regional developer to take the buildings over and rehabilitate them.

Mr. Marcus still owns 4-12 Parker St., a Colonial Revival which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places; 33-49 Parker St. and 25 Main St., at the corner of Pleasant Street. The city has been talking to him about buying his last three buildings.

All five properties, which have vacant top two floors and are in dire need of substantial repairs, are in the city’s Urban Renewal Plan area. The plan is for the buildings to be redeveloped into mixed-use; market-rate residential on the top floors and commercial on the street and basement levels.

One of his current tenants, John Deveau, owner of White Dog Printing, has leased street-level space at 35 Parker St. for 10 years. He reluctantly said the building is in need of repairs.

"There are certainly better landlords out there. It (the building) is old and could use some repairs. There is no doubt about that," he said. When asked if Mr. Marcus makes repairs timely and effectively, Mr. Deveau said, "In his own way, I guess you could say that."

Same issues in Worcester

Mr. Marcus’ pattern of failing to properly maintain his property is prominently displayed at the 72,000-square-foot indoor Midtown Mall at 22 Front St. in Worcester that he has owned since 1980. The property, once a F.W. Woolworth and Co. store, sits across Front Street from Worcester City Hall and the Common, and a block from hundreds of millions of dollars of new development.

The mostly vacant building attracts immigrant and minority tenants because of the low rent. The roof leaks and the inside of the building is dirty and several of the store spaces seem to be used for storage of clothing and other items, that some say Mr. Marcus sells at flea markets. Access to an old escalator that hasn’t worked for at least 20 years is blocked off.

Unlike his Gardner properties, Mr. Marcus’ Midtown Mall is listed in Worcester’s Downtown Urban Revitalization Plan among several downtown properties targeted for acquisition and therefore, can be taken by eminent domain, if need be.

As in Gardner, Mr. Marcus for years has ignored Worcester officials’ attempts to get him to either improve his rundown property so they can be fully used or turn them over to someone who will.

Worcester City Manager Edward M. Augustus Jr. said Mr. Marcus has received “very generous and very fair offers” from others to purchase the Midtown Mall. Mr. Marcus, however, has declined to sell.

Mr. Augustus said the city is not aware of any recent improvements made to the building other than the repair of the façade on the Mechanic Street side, which Inspectional Services ordered him to do so after it was deemed a safety hazard.

“The city has strongly encouraged Mr. Marcus to invest in and renovate his property and we have been more than willing to work with him on that,” Mr. Augustus said via email. “He has not agreed to sell or fix the property. At present, a specific plan and time frame has not been identified for this property.”

Trevor Beauregard, director of Gardner’s Community Development and Planning, who also serves as the executive director of the quasi public Gardner Redevelopment Authority, said Mr. Marcus has been “an ongoing battle” since before he started with the city nine years ago.

“We identify him as a problem landlord in the downtown and we’re doing everything we can to try and move him out. That’s why we took opportunity of grant funding to acquire the two buildings,” Mr. Beauregard said.

“100 percent yes,” Mayor Mark P. Hawke said, when asked if Mr. Marcus’ properties are eyesores.

“I’ve blasted Dean because of the shape of his buildings. I don’t know if there has been any capital investment,” the mayor said. “Things tend to get done after they break which is out of necessity more than anything else. There are water issues. The roofs are all bad. People who will rent from him do so because it’s cheap rent. Then they say, ‘Oh, my God. I’ve got to get out.’ He’s not helping the downtown business community at all.”

Properties in Urban Renewal Plan

Mr. Marcus seemed angry when a reporter asked him about his properties in Gardner. He was showing someone he said is a new tenant rental space in the Midtown Mall one day last week. The small enclosed area with a glass front was filled with old clothes, some on hangers and some on the floor, and other items that have been there for months.

“There is no story in Gardner. Leave me out of this,” Mr. Marcus said angrily.

Ms. Bergstrom said Mr. Marcus is holding up progress in the revitalization of Gardner’s downtown. Ms. Bergstrom, a Gardner native, has been involved with the resurgence of the downtown area for 30 years, since founding Gardner Square II, the downtown business association. She is also a director of the Greater Gardner Industrial Foundation.

“There's a lot that could happen downtown. We just have to get Dean Marcus out," she said. "I see some progress being made all around Dean. I see him as a huge roadblock in our revitalization. It’s like he’s holding our downtown hostage and it’s so frustrating.”

Mr. Marcus' current and former properties are among 220 in Gardner's Downtown Urban Renewal Plan. Most of the structures, 88 percent, predate World War II; 62 percent were constructed prior to 1900. Mr. Marcus’ properties were not targeted for taking, because there were others in worse condition. In order to add his properties to the list of those that can be taken by eminent domain, an amendment to the URP would have to go through the public process, and be approved by the City Council and the state Department of Community Housing and Development.

“As we move forward with priority projects where Dean’s property is involved, we just hope he is willing to work with us on that,” said Mr. Beauregard, executive director of the Gardner Redevelopment Authority.

The city is making progress, In August, city and state officials, including Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito, celebrated completion of phase one of the redevelopment of Rear Main Street, which Mayor Hawke pointed out "only a decade ago" was "strewn with vacant, abandoned manufacturing buildings." As part of the project, the city used a $1.75 million MassWorks Infrastructure Program grant to acquire a dilapidated mill building at 158 Rear Main St. in 2015 and demolished it the following year to make way for the construction of Derby Drive, that begins off West Lynde Street, near the Levi Memorial Library, and now extends all the way behind the police station on Main Street. The newly paved road provides another way for motorists to get through downtown.

The city has also acquired and demolished two longtime-vacant and condemned buildings that were located near Mr. Marcus’ property. The Maki Block, a four-story building at the corner of Parker and Graham streets that was idle and decaying for 20 years, was demolished earlier this year and the site is now an open green space ready for redevelopment. The former Gardner Cinema at 34-40 Parker St., that was destroyed by fire in 2007 and subsequently condemned by the city, was demolished in 2016. The site is proposed to be a small park and a parking lot, which is expected to be completed this year and help facilitate the redevelopment of the building it was attached to: 42-50 Park St., one of Mr. Marcus’ former buildings that the city purchased last year and is negotiating with a developer to rehabilitate.

“What we’re trying to do is get responsible property owners in downtown to reinvest in their property and maintain them,” Mr. Beauregard said about the goal of the city’s URP. “We want to attract more businesses downtown that’s going to bring people to a more bike-friendly and pedestrian-friendly downtown. We want it to be the central business district it’s always been, but also with market rate housing to bring people downtown.