YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio - 21 News has obtained a copy of a letter distributed to tenants at the Flats at Wick complex about an ongoing legal battle.

Creditors are going after a downtown Youngstown developer for money owed on the off-campus student apartment building. A complaint was filed on April 15 on behalf of Morgan Stanley Bank seeks foreclosure on the complex. The complaint lists defendants as Flats at Wick, LLC. and Dominic Marchionda, who is the registered agent on the LLC.

The off-campus Flats at Wick apartments are marketed online as "student living at its finest." Those students have now recieved letters that appear to be from Marchionda himself, alluding to the foreclosure battle. The letter reads, in part, "it is business as usual at the Flats at Wick. As You may have heard, we are currently involved in a lawsuit tht has gotten some press, but litigation is sometimes part of business. We are a locally owned and operated entity, that has always been committed to Youngstown State University and our tenant base and we always will be."
The letter also advises tenants with questions or concerns to contact Marchionda directly.

As for the complaint itself, the bank's legal counsel alleges Marchionda failed "to deposit all rents" into a registered account and did not follow through with putting other money aside. They say Marchondia owes $5.2 million of a $5.5 million loan.

"He and the bank are obviously having a big dispute over the Flats apartments about what was supposed to be done and not done with the money," said Attorney Dave Betras with Betras, Kopp & Harshman.

"The bank has decided to file against him, and that's what judges and the court system is for."

Betras says it's possible the two parties could settle the matter out of court. He says situations like this don't generally impact tenants.

"The tenants get to stay there even if it changes ownership," he said.

Marchionda's Attorney Michael Pasternak tells our print partner The Vindicator that he plans to fight it. Pasternak says his client was in negotiations with the bank to pay off the remainder of the note but did not reach a resolution.

Tenants, like YSU football player Ray Anderson, are hopeful they can keep their lease.

"I'm not worried about it, but I have been getting hit up about it a lot today. People are contacting me, wonder what's going on," he said.

Another student we ran into said she didn't know about the foreclosure filing.

"It would have been nice to know about it when they found out because I still don't know all the information about it and signed my lease for the next year already," said Chandler Killins, a YSU junior from West Mifflin, Pennsylvania.

Anderson said the Flats at Wick is the home to some of his fellow YSU football teammates and YSU student-athletes from the baseball, volleyball, track and tennis teams.

A YSU spokesperson said the university has been in contact with Marchionda. They say Marchionda claimed he would issue some correspondence to the tenants on Tuesday.

21 News reached out to Marchionda for comment and has yet to hear back.

A hearing date has not yet been scheduled regarding the foreclosure filing.

The Flats at Wick development is just one of Marchionda's Youngstown projects cited in a 67-count indictment handed up last year.

Marchionda has denied allegations that he improperly secured money from Youngtown's Waste Water Fund to aid the construction of the Flats as well as several other developments.

He faces charges of theft, receiving stolen property, falsification, record tampering, telecommunications fraud, money laundering, and engaging in a pattern of fraudulent activity.

Marchionda has denied the allegations in the indictment. The next hearing in the criminal case is set for May 31.