Silver Oaks Sold; Residents Given Eviction Notices

Editor's Note: An earlier version of this story mistakenly linked to a website of another unrelated Alabama corporation with a name similar to Capstone Development Corp. Kent Patch regrets the error.

Residents of the 55-and-older retirement community were given a 60-day notice Thursday to move out of the apartment complex.

Shirley Beckett, a 12-year resident of Silver Oaks, said most of the residents were notified in a letter sent out Thursday. But not everyone got the letter.

"A lot of people are upset and scared, me for one," she said.

Management at Silver Oaks did not return calls for comment from Kent Patch Friday.

Shirley said the letter indicated Capstone Development Corp. — a rental management firm — is buying the property. Capstone did not respond to an interview request from Kent Patch.

The complex, on about 13 acres off Horning Road, is bordered by the campus to the west across Loop Road. It's home to dozens of senior residents.

Beckett said her neighbors were hearing that Capstone planned to turn the complex into student housing to serve Kent State, which is expecting a record freshman class this fall and had to close admissions for the semester.

Tom Neumann, associate vice president for communications and marketing at Kent State, said the university is not involved in the sale of the retirement complex.

"The university has not bought that property and we have no intention of buying that property," Neumann said.

Regardless of intent, the end result is 250 of Kent's senior citizens will be displaced by September. The letter indicates residents have 30 days to leave but will be given another 30 days if necessary.

"There’s all these senior citizens that are going to have to relocate in the next two months, which is not really fair for those people," said , Shirley Beckett's son.

Don Beckett, a Kent firefighter, said he knows from serving people there on ambulance calls that many don't have family in the area, and that makes moving even more difficult.

"It’s going to be really hard for those people to relocate … and there’s not enough senior citizen complexes in the area for these people,” he said.

In September, Shirley Beckett will turn 73. She's not excited about the prospect of moving and has no idea where she'll go. "None whatsoever," she said. Her son, who is and will be forced to go on disability retirement, is trying to sell his house to move into a more affordable apartment.

"We’ve got people in here up in their nineties and up in their eighties, and it’s not going to be easy for these people when they find out about it, because a lot of them don’t even know it yet," she said. "They’ve hurt a lot of older people, that’s all I can say. I just hope we all can find somewhere to go."