> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.lambpage.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Heritage Village Landlord Promises to Fix Problematic Apartment Building - URL: https://www.lambpage.com/heritage-village-landlord-promises-fix/ - Published: 2026-09-30T05:15:14.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-01T22:24:11.000Z - Author: David Vanadia - Tags: News In 2025, LambPage reported about the [poor living conditions at Heritage Village Apartments](https://www.lambpage.com/heritage-village-apartments/). Residents were dealing with rodents, mold, and an unresponsive management company. The building’s fire inspection certificate appeared to be out of date, the hallways in the building had no flooring, and an abandoned car was rotting in the accessible parking space that was closest to the front entrance. In 2026, LambPage published a [follow-up story](https://www.lambpage.com/heritage-village-at-lambertville/). Unfortunately, the subjects from the previous year’s reporting had to move out of the building and conditions did not improve for current tenants. The floors hadn’t been fixed, walls were still damaged, and residents complained about trash, rodents, broken heating systems, poor communication with management, and non-existent building maintenance. --- **On Tuesday, September 15, 2026**, a group of residents met in the community room of Heritage Village apartments in Lambertville, NJ to hear a presentation by Community Investment Strategies (CIS), which owns and operates the affordable apartment building. Mark Issa, Tom Flacco, and Chris Foglio (owner and CEO) were there to talk about how the building’s planned $15,000,000 renovation would impact current tenants. Residents sat in rows in the center of the room while onsite staff stood near the side walls or sat on chairs in the back row. Andrew Nowick, Mayor of Lambertville, was present and sitting in the front row. Mark Issa told residents about the building’s future mechanical and electrical systems, then Tom Flacco spoke for the bulk of the presentation. Chris Foglio stood up to jump in whenever she felt the need to interject, which was quite often. The presentation focused on what the building might be like in 2028—after the renovation. Tom Flacco said new windows and blinds should help residents “see better energy efficiency.” He described new kitchen cabinets and stainless steel energy star appliances. “Hopefully you can get excited about it,” he told the group of senior citizens. “The roof leaks,” one resident interjected. “Water runs down the walls on the inside of the building when it rains outside.” “We appreciate that information,” Chris Foglio replied. “Because we're not talking about what is happening in your unit in the presentation, that does not mean that we are not doing new siding, new roofing, dealing with what was found, and so we appreciate the information.” “If you just had the gutters cleaned out, that would rectify it enough until you got to that,” said the resident, a retired plumber. “That’s all I’m saying.” “Okay, got it. We are going to be replacing it too, but that’s a good point. Thank you for that point,” said Chris Foglio. ### Carpeting is 20 Years Old Tom Flacco asked residents to hold their questions until the end of the presentation. He went on to describe bathroom renovations: rejuvenated showers, replaced shower heads, and new vanities, sinks, toilets, and flooring. “My carpeting is 20 years old,” a resident stated. “You’re getting all new flooring,” Chris Foglio quickly replied. The resident asked if she could choose to have flooring instead of carpet. Chris Foglio replied “yes” and Tom Flacco echoed with another “yes.” “I actually have COPD from the carpeting,” the resident added. Tom Flacco explained that the living room and kitchen floors will be LVT (luxury vinyl tile), but that the bedrooms will be carpeted. “On the other side \[of the building\], where we’re on the slab, that’s gonna be ice cold,” said the retired plumber. Chris Foglio asked Mark Issa to address that, and Mark said that the LVT will have a rubber insulating layer below it. “I’m just stating that from living here for six, seven years now, that the floor—even with carpeting—is very cold on a slab," said the retired plumber. ### Great Notifications Tenants of Heritage Village have been living in sub-standard conditions for years. They’ve made phone calls, written letters, and pressed send on countless emails—all in an attempt to inform or inspire the management company to take positive action. Yet, very little—if anything—was done. With top-level management in the room, tenants seized the opportunity to have their voices heard. A resident named Marjorie asked how they plan to address the sediment that’s in the water. Tom Flacco responded by saying they will put in new toilets. “The problem is in the water,” Marjorie clarified. The retired plumber said the water problem is due to the building having an antiquated filtering system that hasn’t been serviced since 2017. Tom Flacco promised he would address questions at the end, and continued his presentation. He said they will use the side parking lot for construction staging and storage. He warned that sometimes the front door will be blocked, so residents will have to enter through the side door. He didn’t mention if residents will have to walk from the front lot to the back parking lot during the renovation, nor did he address where residents would load or unload their cars. “But you guys are going to get great notifications. You’re going to know what’s going on,” he assured, adding that there will be a new onsite resident relations coordinator who will act as “a way for residents to pretty much correspond with” upper management. “They’re gonna be the person that that you guys go to, to explain things, and they’re gonna be your best friend, especially going through this,” he said. ### Why Should We Believe You? “I don’t mean to be rude,” interjected Marjorie, “but why should we believe you now when all the other times you never paid attention to us?” Chris Foglio jumped up. “Because it’s not somebody that’s in my office,” Foglio answered. “She’s actually going to be working here.” “And who does she answer to?” Marjorie asked. “To you?” “Yes,” replied Foglio. A resident pointed out that, even if the employee answers to Chris Foglio, so did the previous onsite managers who refused to do anything to help tenants. “I’m not happy that staff has not been as responsive as they should be,” Chris Foglio said. “They haven’t been any responsive,” Marjorie countered. “And all I can do is step in and try to fix it,” Chris Foglio offered. “I'm hiring someone who will be here and you will see me at least once a week and she will be here every day.” Chris Foglio said that her company has not lived up to her own expectations, nor have they matched the expectations that residents had when they moved in. She said she was trying to be as transparent as possible and take responsibility. The meeting was tense at times. Some residents were angry as they voiced their frustrations. Chris Foglio spoke quite a bit, stepping in where Tom Flacco had no answers. She gave an overview of how tax credits and structured funding financed the upcoming renovation. She said New Jersey wouldn’t let her raise the rents on the affordable apartments, so times were tough. She said she was going to just sell the building, but Mayor Nowick encouraged her to find funding. “You have to just, you know, kind of keep limping along, because there is no ability to have cash except for what comes into the building and so it really hit a very difficult time. It was, we have not earned—and if anybody wants to look at my books—we have not taken a dime out of this building in over twelve years,” Foglio said. CIS Management owns approximately 4,000 affordable apartment units in New Jersey. ### **Shouldn’t Be Too Much of a Burden** Tom Flacco went back to the presentation. He spoke about new lighting, paint, flooring, and boilers. Then he explained the apartment relocation process. “The easiest thing for you guys, and the easiest thing for us, is going to be a one-time onsite transfer,” he told residents. “We’re going to have movers in there doing it for you, and so it really shouldn’t be too much of a burden.” Renovations are planned to happen in vacant units first. At some point the building will be half renovated, at which time the management company will relocate tenants from their current apartment into a newly renovated unit. “Then you have to change your address on everything that you own,” said a resident. “Your credit cards, the bank, social security, everything, ” added another. Some tenants don’t want to leave their current unit. One person, who has trouble walking, said he is close to the front door and he can see his car in the parking lot. Another tenant said she likes her unit because it gets all-season direct sunlight. For tenants who don’t want to permanently switch units, the process is quite complicated. All of their possessions need to be moved out of their apartment and placed in storage. They’ll have to go to a hotel for approximately three days while the construction team does major work in their unit. Once that work is done, the resident can return to their apartment to sleep in at night. However, they will have to vacate their home during the day so that construction can continue. “You’re gonna have to go to a hotel for three nights approximately. That’s not guaranteed,” Tom Flacco told residents, “and when you come back it’s not a finished unit that you’re gonna come back to.” Will residents trust the landlord—who hasn’t been responsive to tenants for years—to safely and securely move and store tenants’ personal belongings? How about tenants with pets? If they really want to keep their current unit, they’ve got quite a journey ahead. “You’re gonna have to deal with work being done in your unit, which means you’re gonna have to come to either the community room, a hospitality suite, whatever we have provided for you as the work is getting done. But you can see where this kind of gets a little bit tough,” Tom Flacco said. “You’re not going to be able to be in your unit while this work is getting done.” ### **This is Going to Be Upsetting** The renovation is scheduled to start in October, 2026 and continue until April, 2028\. Tenants, who have been paying full rent to live in a mismanaged building, will continue to pay full rent to live in a construction zone for 18 months—assuming the project stays on schedule and contractors work within the 8am to 4:30pm, Monday through Friday work hours. “This is going to be upsetting,” a resident said out loud. “Listen, I hear you. Listen, I want you guys to know this has been a—,” Tom Flacco paused to think about what he was about to say. “Awww, never mind.” Flacco seemed as if he was a coach giving a pep talk to a team that had already lost. “Like, we understand what you’ve been through. No one understand more than Chris,” he said, referring to Chris Foglio. “She’s been hearing it, and she’s been trying to deal with you guys—not deal with—but she’s been trying to accompany—uh—to accommodate everything that you’ve been asking for.” Tom Flacco resumed the presentation by showing conceptual renderings of what the building’s facade and community room might look like after the renovation. “We’re going to try to make it as easy as possible for you guys. We really mean that, but it’s going to take some work—there’s just no doubt about it—from you. And it’s going to be work,” Flacco said. “We’re really looking forward to what April of 2028 is for you guys.” At that point, Mayor Nowick got up and ducked across the front row to say a quiet goodbye to Chris Foglio, and to a resident before he left for another engagement. ### **We’ll Look Into It** “I spend over $60 dollars a month on \[bottled\] water, because the water here is not drinkable,” said a resident. ”It’s not clean.” “We’re going to have a water station at the community room,” said Chris Flacco. “You have to address that filtration system before you do any of that or else you’re going to be sending that polluted water in,” said the retired plumber. “I’m not drinking any of that. This is serious,” said the resident who spends $60 per month on bottled water. “You have the PFAS in the area," a resident added. “It needs to be tested. It needs to be vigilant,” said another. “We did have—so part of the capital needs assessment was we ran a video through the plumbing and everything showed up. We cleaned the storm water drainage, we cleaned that,” Tom Flacco said. “We’re addressing the potable water,” said the retired plumber, reiterating that the building’s filtering system needs to be serviced. Mark Issa stepped forward and suggested iron, calcium, and possibly the water company was to blame for the dirty water. A lively discussion followed. “The water is polluted. My toilet turns black. Everyone here will agree,” said a retired construction professional who lives in the building. “We'll look into it,” Mark Issa said. “Can you test the water?” asked a resident. “What we’re saying is people are concerned about the water, and we have PFAS in the water in the area too,” another resident summarized. Chris Foglio said they will have a meeting with the water company and then hold another community meeting. “We’ll have Mark there. We’ll go through what our plans are. We’ll make sure that there’s representatives of the water company and we’ll be really clear after that whose responsibilities are what, and what improvements we can get done,” Foglio said. Mark Issa agreed with that plan, and added that they, too, are frustrated. “We don’t want to do all this renovation and you guys have black water,” Chris Foglio said. “That’s not moving us in the direction that we’re going in, so obviously there are a variety of issues that we have to address, and I hear that water is one and we’re gonna call for representative of the water company to come and we’ll have a meeting specifically just for water.” ### **I’m Going to Fix It** “That's everything that we have unless there are more questions,” Tom Flacco said concluding the presentation. “We have pizza and water, unless there are more questions. I’m gonna hang out, and I’ll eat some pizza.” ![senior citizens sit and stand as CIS employees answer questions in the community room](https://storage.ghost.io/c/fa/bd/fabd45fd-ac8a-48c2-a258-906f3226b8a7/content/images/2026/09/AfterMeeting.webp) residents ask questions and chat at the end of the presentation Marjorie asked if they would leave a person’s name and telephone number before they left that day so residents could ask questions in the meantime. “Sending letters via certified mail doesn't get us anywhere,” Marjorie added. “I will start to come here every Friday for at least an hour. I will sit in the community room. If anybody wants to speak with me directly, it will probably be around 10 o’clock on Friday mornings and I will be here every Friday starting the first week in October,” Chris Flacco said. “And maybe, you know, maybe I'll bring some sweets, because I’m Italian and I like food, you know.” Marjorie looked skeptical. “But the process is going to be a lot of work if we work together and I’m willing to spend the time and be here, and be here personally, but I’m going to be accountable, because you have not had that and I heard you loud and clear.” “All right, everybody heard it,” Marjorie announced. “This nice lady is going to be accountable to our problems.” Residents applauded. “I want to fix it. This is not the condition that we want to find ourselves in with the building and I’m going to fix it,” Chris Foglio promised. “We’ve got the money now and I’ve just got to get it done.”