The work of water is present throughout the apartment David Berry Sr. and his son Jim Berry share on the former Loring Air Force Base in northeastern Aroostook County. Rusty brown rings mark the ceilings, and blooms of mold are visible in the basement, one nearly as wide as the washing machine it sits behind.
The liquid gets in through cracked and unsealed doors and windows, improperly installed plumbing and a deteriorating foundation, according to a recent lawsuit filed in Caribou District Court by David Berry, 80, who has lived in the two-story, four-bedroom apartment for 20 years.
He and his son, Jim Berry — who also lives in the apartment and is a co-plaintiff in the lawsuit — have watched as the gray, blue and brown shingled buildings in the former military housing complex near the Canadian border have deteriorated around them. Several buildings were condemned years ago and are marked with big red X’s to let emergency personnel know no one is living there, but they have yet to be torn down.
The former base, which shuttered in 1994, is now an industrial park overseen by the Loring Development Authority, a public municipal corporation created by the Maine Legislature to redevelop the land and provide services to its tenants. But it has at times struggled to do so, and the Berrys’ complaints follow previous concerns about the properties on Manser Drive, including from officials in the town of Limestone, who have said some of the buildings pose a safety risk.
When the Berrys learned in March that their rent would increase by $200 for a total of $1,300 each month by August, Jim Berry pushed back — first in texts to the property manager and then later to the Loring Development Authority. He spoke at a public meeting of the authority’s board of trustees on July 16.
“I told them how much mismanagement of the place there is, and how he doesn’t fix things,” Berry said in a recent interview with The Maine Monitor, referring to Sheldon Corey Jr., who manages the apartments through his business, J.A.K.S. Property Management. “You know, these places are all run-down, and there’s kids running inside these buildings, and they’re going to get hurt.”
Five days later, the Berrys were given a no-cause eviction notice. It was dated July 17 by the property manager’s attorney. The Berrys are suing the authority as well as J.A.K.S. Property Management for refusing to maintain the apartment and illegally increasing the rent. They are arguing the property management company is violating Maine law that requires dwellings to be fit for habitation and forbids rent increases if there are violations.
Their case will hinge on whether the Berrys can prove that the apartment presents health and safety risks and that they complained about them in a good-faith effort to get them fixed prior to the eviction notice. The blighted apartments stand in contrast to the new manufacturing facilities Loring has brought on as it tries to revive the shuttered air base, including a brand new, $75 million potato chip facility across the street that began supplying chips to retailers in July.
Matt Dyer, an attorney with Pine Tree Legal Assistance who is representing the Berrys, said the Manser Drive apartments are an option of last resort for many tenants. His group, which provides legal services to low-income residents throughout Maine, is representing the Berrys and another resident of a nearby apartment who is also suing the authority and the property management company for not maintaining the properties.
“A lot of tenants are afraid to complain because they don’t want to get evicted, and that is just what is happening to Mr. Berry now,” he said. “They went in, and they complained, and what happened? Did someone show up to fix things? No, they got an eviction notice, and that’s very typical.”
‘The dilapidation that has occurred’
The apartments, originally built in the 1970s, are located on the western side of the campus, now called the Loring Commerce Centre. The authority received $3.1 million in federal funds in 2021 to tear down dangerous structures and fix some of the roads, many of which are pockmarked with potholes. Six apartment buildings were slated to be demolished in 2024, according to reporting at the time, but that has yet to happen.
Two years later, the authority is still in the “planning phase” of that effort, the group’s president and CEO Jonathan Judkins told The Monitor last week. He said Loring is waiting on final approval from the Maine Department of Environmental Protection before it can solicit bids for demolition. Department of Environmental Protection spokesperson David Madore said the agency is reviewing a permit Loring needs to dispose of materials once the buildings are destroyed.
The base was put on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s National Priorities List of Superfund sites in 1990 because of contamination from waste oils, aircraft and vehicle fuel, pesticides and more. This means buildings are required to go through a federal environmental review before they can be torn down.
Since 2024, J.A.K.S. Property Management has been responsible for the apartments on Manser Drive. The company pays the authority a monthly fee to manage the 32 apartments currently being rented out, according to Judkins. He declined to specify the fee, but said that, in exchange, the property management company is allowed to set rents as it pleases.
The Loring Development Authority also paid J.A.K.S. $31,164 during fiscal year 2025 for “campus-wide roads and grounds maintenance services” as well as other duties, according to the authority’s 2025 report to the Maine Legislature.
J.A.K.S. is responsible for keeping the buildings it manages up to code, and they are inspected yearly by a code enforcement officer retained by the authority, Judkins said.
That might change in the future, as Loring is proposing the town of Limestone take over the code enforcement and zoning of the campus and be party to discussions about new projects, Judkins said during a Sept. 17 Loring board of trustees meeting. He said the proposal is a way to give Limestone a seat at the table when it comes to the future of the former base, noting the two parties have had a “tumultuous” past.
Limestone took over firefighting services on the campus after Loring disbanded its fire department about a decade ago. But in 2023 the town threatened to cut off fire services after the authority fell behind on payments. Judkins said the town has offered to waive the costs of providing fire and ambulance services going forward.
Edward Pocock III, Limestone’s town manager, said those discussions are still ongoing.
“You’re starting to see a melding of the two entities, and that’s what we’re working towards,” Pocock told The Monitor. “But it has to be done in a way that is acceptable to the Limestone community.”
Providing fire and ambulance services makes sense, he said, because “Loring is Limestone, and Limestone is Loring.” And reworking the center’s zoning could open up other economic opportunities to align the former base with the community it resides in. But taking on code enforcement — as well as oversight of the Manser Drive apartments — is complicated, he said, adding that the town would have to be briefed by Loring’s contracted code enforcement officer and look at the issue closely.
Pocock said he has not been involved in the process to tear down the condemned buildings but defended the long timeline.
“It’s not that easy with grant money,” he said. “The bureaucratic red tape is unbelievable.”
The Loring Development Authority has had budget challenges in the past decade as the Maine Military Authority and other big employers left the former base and it has worked to attract new businesses such as the potato chip factory.
It receives Job Tax Increment Financing funds from the state, which returns half of the income tax generated by businesses on the campus each year to help maintain municipal services and public infrastructure; in the past few years, that has come to around $600,000 each year. It also receives revenue from lease agreements, land sales, maintenance charges and utility fees, but has no conventional property tax base and does not receive a general fund appropriation from the state.
While proceeds from property sales have helped the authority, it still faces “persistent structural challenges,” Judkins wrote in the authority’s 2025 report, asking the state to consider additional funding.
Since Loring brought on J.A.K.S. Property Management, work orders for apartment repairs have decreased, Judkins said, adding that any money to continue repairs there has to come from tenants’ rent payments and grants.
“We’re going to continue to work towards progress here, using the resources we have,” Judkins said.
The authority has reportedly been working on some of the Manser Drive apartments since J.A.K.S. took over, according to Loring board of trustees meeting minutes. Judkins said in August 2024 that the property management company had renovated five previously unusable apartments in a short amount of time after taking over the apartments that July.
“Removed 12 roll-off dumpsters of trash/debris/hazardous items and just made an incredible transformation to the area in a very short amount of time,” minutes from the August 2024 meeting read.
Subsequent meetings detail work such as fixing streetlights, servicing and maintaining furnaces, remodeling units and fixing boilers.
“I’ve been collaborating with Sheldon Corey to inspect some of the apartments and ensure that they meet code requirements and are safe for everyone,” said George Howe, the authority’s contracted code enforcement officer, according to May 22, 2025, meeting minutes. “We’re also working to address the dilapidation that has occurred in the past and turn it around.”
More housing is supposed to be coming to the campus through Green 4 Maine, a Portland-based company that bought 450 acres from Loring in 2023 and said it planned to create 750 new residential units. CEO Scott Hinkel told The Monitor that the project is ongoing, and he expects to build 25 apartments next year.
‘Time for you to move’
In the meantime, the residents of the leaky apartment on Manser Drive are trying to figure out their next step. In addition to the infrastructure problems and the mold, the Berrys allege their apartment has faulty electrical outlets and an inoperable shower. They argue J.A.K.S. is aware of the conditions because it viewed the apartments when it took them over in 2024.
Howe, the code enforcement officer, referred questions about the status of the apartments to Judkins, who in turn referred them to the property management company. Corey, the property manager, declined to comment at a recent Loring Development Authority board meeting and referred a reporter to his attorney.
The attorney, Christopher Leger, said he had been speaking with Corey about ending the Berrys’ lease at least two weeks prior to the July 16 board meeting. He said it was a coincidence the notice to quit was dated the day after the meeting, which he had no knowledge of.
“There’s no way they’ll be able to demonstrate the eviction was retaliatory, I can assure you of that,” he said.
The minutes for the July 16 meeting have not been posted to the Loring Commerce Centre’s website; the most recent minutes posted are from April. Judkins did not respond to a request for the minutes this week.
Another resident, Samantha Corey, is also suing the authority and J.A.K.S. on the grounds that the parties have not maintained the properties. She alleges her apartment has a “significant amount of mold” in a bathroom and the basement, rotted floors and windows that do not have screens or open and close properly, according to the lawsuit filed in Caribou District Court.
She alleges those issues have been reported to the property manager but have never been fixed. Corey said she is up to date with her rent but pays in cash, and J.A.K.S. does not provide receipts, which is required under Maine law. She is asking the court to determine a fair value for the rent and require the property management company to refund her anything she has paid beyond that. Corey did not respond to a message left at her residence.
The Berrys’ rent increase notice said all residents got a $100 rent increase because of utility costs; they received an additional $100 increase because they had been charged for a three-bedroom unit instead of a four-bedroom unit, according to a notice reviewed by a Monitor reporter.
Jim Berry and Sheldon Corey spoke about the rent and the status of the apartment in the months leading up to the eviction notice, according to texts reviewed by The Monitor. During one June 5 exchange, Jim Berry listed off several problems with the apartment and asked if they would be fixed if he and his father paid the increased rent after Corey told them a prior check was short. Corey seemed to indicate he was planning not to renew the Berrys’ lease.
“Sounds like it’s time for you to move,” he wrote. “I’ll have my lawyer draw up the end of the tenacy paperwork formally. I hope u find a more suitable place to live.”
“We never said we wanted to move,” Jim Berry replied.
David Berry Sr. moved to the apartment on Manser Drive because it provided more space than he had in Presque Isle. He liked that it had a yard, he said, and the residents were friendly.
Those factors, and the difficulties of moving, kept him in the apartment for two decades, despite it steadily deteriorating, he said. He said he would like to stay, as he’s not sure if he’ll be able to find another place of this size that will also accommodate their two dogs.
But even if the eviction is thrown out, he does not think it will be good to stay much longer.
“I’m finding out more and more about the hazards to my health with the possible molds,” he said. “But I don’t have any other place to go right now.”
This story was originally published by The Maine Monitor, a nonprofit and nonpartisan news organization. To get regular coverage from The Monitor, sign up for a free Monitor newsletter here.