Orlando Sentinel‘s Trevor Fraser shared a story in late February about a particular apartment building in downtown Orlando that has been making a name for itself for all the wrong reasons.

Fraser’s piece shared some troubling testimonials from people who live at 55 West (Website) in the Church Street District painting vivid pictures of people living in the stairwells, strangers masturbating by apartment doors, and hallways full of dog waste.

A TikTok user by the name of @55westboy has been documenting some of the issues on his page and had roughly 945 followers at the time of this post.

@55westboy

The dark secret behind 55 west apartments in Orlando. #55westapartment #orlando #downtown #55west

♬ original sound – 55westboy

The 32-story tower was purchased in 2022 by Mexican firm, HASTA Capital for $144 million, and last year alone raked in 643 police calls ranging from theft and battery to trespassing and “deviant sexual activities.”

Not all of those calls are for issues within the building, as we learned while reporting on a similar issue back in 2015, where it had been reported that 500 calls were made that year – which was seven years before the property sold to HASTA. According to Orlando Police in 2015, a large number of those calls were for suspicious persons and homeless individuals in the right-of-way around the building or nearby bar-goers.

Studio apartments at 55 West start at $1,623 a month and can go up to over $2,000 based on square footage (683 SF vs. 952). A 1,808 SF three-bedroom apartment, based on the website, can go for $3,020.

Orlando Police Chief Eric Smith recently shared that in the past six months, shootings have decreased 12%, and violent crimes have gone down by 8%. However, during that time, violence committed by youths increased by 22%.

Brendan O'Connor

Editor in Chief of Bungalower.com

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  1. The homeless problems and tent city at Central, Terry and Parramore is outrageous and no doubt contributing to this problem in Downtown and College Park.?

  2. Why do Orlando cops keep saying crime is going down. Every time you talj to them. By now…we wouldn’t have ANY crime left. If that was the truth. Oh. Cops on horseback. Orlando fl. They will tell you the truth. Their cool.
    They will tell you. ” Orlando became a sewer pit”