Attorney Sinclair Williams showing notices to Raymond Jackson, a neighborhood specialist for LCI.
Attorney Kenneth Rozich: Between the first and second notices of violation, “the only change is that you wanted $1,000 per day, not $100 per day, isn’t that the truth?”
Some of Ocean’s Fitch St. homes, as pictured in May 2025. Credit: Thomas Breen file photo
One of the city’s largest landlords took the Livable City Initiative (LCI) to court this week to contest the agency’s decision to assess $413,000 in anti-blight fines on seven decrepit houses on Fitch Street.
The properties in question — located at 166, 168, 170, 174, 176, 202, and 220 Fitch St. — are owned by affiliates of Ocean Management, a real estate company controlled by Shmuel Aizenberg.
The case reflects LCI’s increased enforcement of the city’s anti-blight, housing code, and residential rental licensing programs. It also raises broader questions about whether one of the agency’s key enforcement mechanisms — fines assessed by volunteer hearing officers — will stand up in court.
State Superior Court Judge Matthew Frechette presided over the case at 235 Church St. on Tuesday.
In the decision he ultimately releases, Frechette will evaluate the fines assessed by an LCI hearing officer on Oct. 14, 2025, de novo, meaning without any deference to the original decision.
The Fitch Street properties have suffered from collapsed porches, peeling paint, overgrown lawns, and decayed roofs for more than a year. The backyard of 220 Fitch St. has served as a collection spot for trash from Ocean Management’s other properties, according to testimony during Tuesday’s hearing from Sayda Nemorin, one of the company’s property managers.
About a month after the Board of Alders passed an ordinance in August 2025 raising the maximum amount allowed in anti-blight fines, LCI delivered citations on seven Fitch Street properties. According to a memorandum filed on Jan. 6 of this year by LCI attorney Sinclair Williams, who represented the city at Tuesday’s hearing, LCI sent seven hearing notices about the citations on Oct. 3. Ocean Management’s attorney requested a continuance due to a religious holiday, which the hearing officer denied. Nemorin said she attended the hearing.
On Oct. 14, the LCI hearing officer approves fines for each house at $1,000 per day, as all of them were subject to at least three blight-related violations related to overgrown yards, chipped paint, accumulated debris, and general lack of upkeep.
Williams’s Jan. 6 memorandum states that fines stopped accruing when Ocean Management’s subsidiaries filed for demolition permits on Dec. 12, 2025. As a result, the total fine resulting from October’s decision stands at $59,000 per property, or $413,000 in total.
Before the October 2025 hearing, on Dec. 10, 2024, another LCI hearing officer had approved more than $130,000 in anti-blight fines on six of Ocean Management’s Fitch Street houses, five of which were under discussion during Tuesday’s hearing. That amount reflects a sum of $100 per day, accumulating on each property from approximately May 7, 2024 to Dec. 10, 2024.
The properties at 202 Fitch St. and 220 Fitch St., which were not reviewed during the Dec. 10 hearing, were also cited by the city in 2024. LCI sent a civil citation for 220 Fitch St. on Feb. 29., and fines began accumulating on 202 Fitch St. on Dec. 4.
When asked about the Fitch Street properties, Ocean’s Aizenberg told the Independent that he disagrees with the city’s fine assessment, explaining that regulatory approvals, not neglect, were responsible for slowing demolition.
“The fines imposed by the city do not reflect the full reality on the ground, and we do not believe imposing fines is the appropriate course of action in this situation,” wrote Aizenberg. The properties required mandatory environmental remediation, which was “necessary, time-consuming, and not optional.”
“Demolition has not been delayed due to neglect or inaction, but rather because we have been following the property regulatory process to ensure the work is done safely and in compliance with city and environmental standards,” he continued. He said Ocean is in “the final stages of completing all required approvals” for demolition.
According to the city’s online permit database, the company filed for demolition permits on Dec. 12, 2025.
During Tuesday’s hearing, attorney Kenneth Rozich, representing the Ocean subsidiaries, pushed LCI to defend its decision to issue new anti-blight violations on the Fitch Street properties.
Between the first and second notices of violation, asked Rozich, “the only change is that you wanted $1,000 per day, not $100 per day, isn’t that the truth?”
“The only thing I want is for [Ocean Management] to clean up their properties, to tell you the truth,” responded Raymond Jackson, an LCI Neighborhood Specialist who testified on Tuesday.
Jackson said he has been checking on the properties regularly for multiple years. During his inspections, he noticed that the houses were “in a very dilapidated state” and open to potential squatters. Before the first notices of violation were sent in 2024, Jones said LCI had called the owners about the issues, who told the agency that the properties would be demolished.
It “looked like they were making an effort” to clean up the houses by mowing the lawn and clearing trash, said Jackson. But, he pointed out, nothing was done to the buildings themselves.
Around May 2025, the company put up blue-tarp fencing around the blighted properties. Given that the company had taken steps to hide overgrown grass, weeds, and bushes from public view, Rozich asked why the anti-blight violations about vegetation were still imposed.
While they “took steps,” acknowledged Jones, the fencing “didn’t hide anything.” He said it was still possible to see the overgrown lawns and accumulated detritus from a nearby Dunkin’ Donuts, multifamily development, and the Barack H. Obama Magnet University School.
During her testimony, Nemorin said Ocean Management had long planned to demolish the properties, but there have been “hurdles” related to environmental concerns, financing, and historical preservation. She said the company regularly sends someone to the properties to clean up trash and check for squatters.
City demolition officer Jose Romero, who also testified at Tuesday’s hearing, said that in the absence of preservation concerns, it is rare for a property to take more than 30 days to demolish.
Potentially related to the delay are claims from multiple construction companies alleging to have not been compensated for services rendered.
In February 2025, GZA GeoEnvironmental sued a subsidiary of Ocean Management for failing to pay for construction-related services performed at several Fitch Street properties. A judge decided in favor of GZA in September 2025, ordering the Ocean subsidiary to pay $65,058.24.
On Oct. 10, another construction company, the Alloy Group, claimed mechanic’s liens of $9,571.50 against 202 and 220 Fitch St. for services allegedly performed but not compensated.
According to an order from Judge Frechette, both sides — LCI and the Ocean affiliate — are required to file briefs of no more than 10 pages by Jan. 30 in the case heard on Tuesday. Rebuttals to the briefs are due on Feb. 6.
Not including the Fitch Street properties, LCI Executive Director Liam Brennan said the agency assessed $3.17 million in fines on non-compliant landlords in 2025. Many of those penalties came out of 6,451 inspections performed over the year.
Brennan said LCI currently has 430 open housing code complaints and 581 ongoing blight complaints.
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