The ‘Coronado Project’ or known as Coronado Village in East Lubbock is now fully owned by Lester Payne. The apartments were owned by former Councilman Frank Morrison, who allowed struggling low income families to live there. On Thursday afternoon, Frank said that he was told by Payne that he wasn’t going to foreclose on the property. It was late last night, that Morrison and the residents learned that Payne did.
“Yesterday I believed that we had an agreement with Mr. Payne about what was going to happen going forward,” said Morrison. “But then last night that he bought it out of foreclosure which is against the verbal agreement that he had with me.”
Payne as the new owner, has hired a new property manager and maintenance crew. He said that in order for the residents to continue living there, they have to fill out a month to month lease and file for an individual electricity account with LP&L and one with Atmos Gas. The lights will be turned off in the apartments Thursday morning, November 2– and turned back on once personal accounts are made.
“We are here to make things good unlike what you see here which is a riot kinda,” said Payne. “Thats not good, nobody should live in that scenario, and so we are going to try to calm everything down and explain what the situation is.”
Payne sold the property to Morrison back in 2013 and acted as a lein holder. Morrison owes Payne over $400,000. Residents like Monica Wright, said that although Payne was tighter with the finances, Morrison made a strong effort to renovate the apartments and help families who have been in tough situations. Morrison said he refuses to give up, and will continue to find a way to continue helping.
“I feel like I am out at ocean and I can’t sail my ship,” said Morrison. “I can’t get a direction of where we are, I don’t know where we are.”
