City of Milwaukee sues landlord for over 200 nuisance properties
Highgrove Holdings properties. Images courtesy of Tenants United.
MILWAUKEE — The City of Milwaukee is suing an out-of-state landlord for code violations, neglect and unpaid taxes associated with over 200 dilapidated properties.
Milwaukee City Attorney Evan Goyke filed two public nuisance lawsuits against Highgrove Holdings Management, LLC and its owner David Tomblin for persistent noncompliance with building codes and ongoing vacancy on the city’s north side. Tomblin owes the city over $350,000 in unpaid taxes across 260 properties.
“Going beyond just the status of the properties, we are asking a court to declare the business operations of Highgrove Holdings, how they operate, a nuisance in the City of Milwaukee,” Goyke said during a press conference.
Housing and healthcare rights group Common Ground and its new offshoot Tenants United have documented dozens of violations and examples of neglect, from mildew and mold to broken window glass and holes in the ceiling.
The City of Milwaukee is also joining a separate mortgage foreclosure lawsuit filed by U.S. Bank against one of Highgrove Holdings’ 10 LLCs, which alleges that Tomblin has not paid back a loan of over $8 million for 86 of his rental properties. That suit has requested that over 50 of those properties be placed in a receivership, in which a third party manages them until problems are abated.
“As tenants pay rent, the rent is used to fix the conditions and abate the nuisances,” said Goyke. “It’s a very powerful tool.”
The City Attorney’s filings represent one of the largest public nuisance enforcement actions in city history, and the most significant since Goyke took office in 2024.
“High Grove came to Milwaukee with a business model built on extraction. They promised to rehabilitate distressed properties while delivering returns to investors.”
Common Ground began corresponding with Tomblin back in August and made multiple attempts to get him to work with tenants in good faith. Tomblin told organizers that he is not an official resident of Milwaukee and promised he would pay owed property taxes by the end of December 2025.
Tenants of Highgrove Holdings properties say they’ve repeatedly been told their issues were not high priority. One tenant said she suffered a concussion after her ceiling fell on her during historic flooding in August.
“It took three months for him to patch my ceiling, and yet it still leaks because he didn’t repair the holes in the roof,” said Ebony Martin.
Other tenants describe living with no working bathtub faucets, water pouring down light fixtures and boarded up garages.
“Nothing gives me more stress than my house,” said tenant Samantha Gamble “I moved my family up from Chicago 15 years ago to escape violence. I found a different kind of violence here.”