The City of Monterey and a property owner reach an agreement to fix derelict apartments.

It’s been a long, frustrating and convoluted journey toward rehabilitating a 1930s-era, 14-unit apartment complex in Monterey. The journey is not yet over, but it’s coming to a turning point after a legal fight that’s been going on well over a year, involving the City and a property owner who currently sits in prison on crimes unrelated to the complex.

It’s also been an expensive journey for the City. After successfully petitioning a court in 2024 to place 359 Larkin St. in the care of a receiver, City officials estimate they’ve spent nearly $163,000 in attorney’s fees and staff costs and they want the property owner, Leslie J. Flores through his trusts, to pay them back, according to court documents.

The vintage complex began to fall into disrepair several years ago under the ownership of Flores, leading to resident complaints to the city around 2022. That prompted inspections that found mold, broken heaters and windows, leaky roofs and more. In 2023, the City condemned apartments one by one as residents left.

Numerous attempts were made to force Flores to make improvements. When those failed, the City filed for receivership in 2024. Ideally the city would have made improvements and then filed a lien on the property, but the court-reported receiver later told a judge that the cost of renovations were too great – he recommended selling the building “as is” to a developer capable of making the fixes.

Simultaneous to struggling against the city, Flores was facing mounting legal issues – he evaded arrest on a number of felony and misdemeanor charges in 2024 before being captured in dramatic fashion, then pleaded no contest and was sentenced to more than eight years in prison.

The day he began his incarceration, Jan. 19, 2025, was the same day Flores filed a deed with the County transferring the property from his own trust to a company owned by his trust, called 43034 LLC.

Lawyers for 43034 fought sale of the property, contending the trust was capable of making repairs. In December, the City and the LLC came to an agreement that would allow the trust to make fixes – but first, there was the matter of how much the city would be reimbursed for its costs. After failing to agree on an amount, attorneys for 43034 agreed to abide by a judge’s decision.

That decision by Monterey County Superior Court Judge Ian Rivamonte is scheduled to be heard in a Monterey courtroom on Friday, May 15. Once made, the clock starts ticking for 43034 to pay the city within 14 days, file for a permit within 30 days and complete all work within 305 days. The estimate for all repairs is just under $500,000.

In asking Rivamonte to intercede on awarding fees, attorneys for the City, Civica Law Group, argued in April that had Flores complied earlier, the City’s fees would have been lower.

“The City sincerely would have preferred to have avoided all of this stress and frustration had defendants simply complied from the start,” they said.