Thornwood Apartments Manager Talks Upgrades, Donations and Crime: Business Spotlight

There aren't a lot of apartment complexes in Chicago Heights, but most people are familiar with Thornwood. Just next door to St. Kieran School, the complex has had its ups and downs over the years.

Patch spoke with property manager Dionne Williams about Thornwood, the recent improvements and how the management hopes deter crime. 

Patch: How long has been Thornwood Apartments been around?

Williams: They’ve been here since the ‘70s but Ludwig and Company took over the management in 2004. Before that City of Chicago Heights used to own this property. DK&I bought it. They own a couple of different properties in Chicago Heights. They bought (Thornwood) in 2004.

The apartment complex has gone through some changes over the past few years. How are things going?

I think we’re in a really good place right now. We’re around 98 percent occupied. Last year was the first time the pool’s been open in a number of years, so the residents love that. I’ve been here going on two years. I’ve done a resident appreciation day and a back to school event. I now have an activity center in the community room and we now have an after-school program. So I would say things are definitely looking up.

What should someone look for when apartment hunting?

Location, location, location. You want to live somewhere that’s comfortable and family oriented, which we are here. I’m a big believer that it takes a village. It’s a decent area near schools. We have a couple of schools in our area, Longwood, Brookfield. There’s a Catholic school down the street (St. Kieran School).

You want to be walking distance to the bus, and Pace runs down Halsted. We’re five minutes from several expressways.  For a lot of our tenants that don’t own cars, there’s even a Pace special bus that comes through and picks up some of our seniors.

Is this an ideal place to live?

Definitely, especially since Ford is talking about hiring 1,100 more people, so I’m sure it’s going to increase even more in this area.

In the past people have been concerned about crime in the area. Have there been improvements?

Definitely. I actually hired security and they work seven days a week. We have surveillance cameras throughout our whole property, including our parking lots. I can honestly say we don’t have break ins. Everywhere you go you’re going to have a little gang activity, but it’s really deterred because we have security seven days a week.  The Chicago Heights Police Department, we’re part of the their shift change, so they drive through here every shift change. So just that presence kind of deters a lot.

Any recent developments you want to talk about? 

(Bloom 206 board president) Henry Drake donated four computers. We’re currently working on getting an after-school program in place. We submitted a grant to the (Bloom school) board and they approved the grant, so we’re trying to get Thornwood to be one of the locations where the after-school program will be , since so many of our kids go there.

The teachers will come here after school, but they’ll have laptops of their own to work with the children. We have so many kids here, we wanted try to get computers ourselves so we don’t have ten kids waiting their turn. Mr. Drake actually donated the computers.

Thornwood Apartments offers a latch-key program for the children whose parents are not home when they get back from school. The program is from 3:30 p.m. to 6 p.m., and children are given snacks and supervision. The complex also offers a movie night on Fridays, as well as bingo for senior citizens.