For the past 25 years, Mark Adams, President of California Receivership Group (CRG), has led the way in using health and safety receivership to rehabilitate nuisance and abandoned properties, as well as several other types of deteriorating properties throughout California. He has been appointed receiver by 179 state and federal judges to rehabilitate over 360 properties throughout 36 counties and 126 cities. Mark is also involved in receivership outside of California, including with the Tennessee Receivership Group (TRG).
Mark serves as Managing Director of the TRG, the first to demonstrate the impact of partial abatement receiverships in Tennessee. TRG’s work has focused on Memphis, with 19 properties rehabilitated under its oversight. It also provides legal assistance to other receivers through receivership representation, increasing the number of properties remediated and returned to the community.
Following are some of the Memphis, Tennessee, properties transformed by TRG under Adam’s direction.
925 East McLemore Avenue
Stax Records, home of world-renowned musical artists, including Booker T. & the M.G.’s, Rufus Thomas and Carla Thomas, and Otis Redding, in the 1960s and 1970s, reopened as Stax Museum of American Soul Music in 2003. Across the way from the museum was a property in terrible condition located at 925 East McLemore Avenue. In 2019, the City of Memphis deemed the property a public nuisance under the Neighborhood Preservation Act. When the property owner failed to make the necessary improvements, TRG was appointed as the Receiver for the property.
Mark Adams and TRG determined the property was unsalvageable and demolished it within two months of the receivership appointment to create a clean vacant lot with a prime view of the Stax Museum. As with Stax Records and the rest of Soulsville, 925 East McLemore is now amid a rebirth. The property was sold to a new owner in June 2023, and the Shelby County Commission has demarcated the Soulsville area as a tourism development zone.
West Brooks Road
The former home of Civil Rights and pioneering photojournalist Ernest C. Withers in Memphis, Brooks Road was being converted into a museum. Unfortunately, a house only five doors down was in shambles. The property was declared a public nuisance, and the owner was ordered in 2020 to clear and secure the property and provide the Court with a full abatement plan. By 2022, no one had come forward, and the Court entered an Order Establishing Non-Compliance and Authorizing the Appointment of a Receiver. There were unpaid property taxes of more than $18,000. The Court’s order cleared the way for the property to be abated and for the taxes to be paid through receivership.
Mark Adams and TRG were appointed as the receivership and applied for partial abatement receivership to secure, stabilize, and address the health and safety risks posed by a property. They later attracted potential developers for full property remediation while the receivership monitored it. TRG cleaned the property, removed and disposed of the asbestos inside the structure, had its vendors complete the required landscaping, and secured access to the property.
The property eventually became available at auction and was purchased in 2023, at which time renovations began. By August 2023, the house was fully remediated, and the receivership ended.
The receivership process with TRG paid the outstanding property taxes, adding funds to City and County coffers, with the newly renovated property bringing additional value to the community.
Lawrence Avenue
The property at Lawrence Avenue was built around 1912 in the Evergreen District in Memphis. In 1984, it was nominated to the National Register of Historic Places for its architectural importance. By the early 21st century, however, the property was abandoned and in ruins. In 2019, the City of Memphis began a suit under the Neighborhood Preservation Act, and in September 2021, TRG was appointed Receiver of the property.
TRG and its subcontractors renovated the property from top to bottom, including installing a brand-new kitchen and bathroom. More than $171,000 in improvements were made without any taxpayer funds. After 15 months of TRG taking receivership of the property, it was sold.
Estate Drive
In August 2019, the Court appointed TRG receiver for Estate Drive to address the severe health and safety risks posed by the property. The property had extensive mold growth on ceilings, walls, and floors throughout the interior, rooms stacked with personal property from floor to ceiling, abandoned appliances, pest infestation, and decaying building materials.
Within less than 90 days of TRG’s appointment, the health and safety conditions at the property were abated. TRG then put the property up for public auction and received a qualified buyer, who rehabilitated and later sold it in less than five months after purchasing it at auction.