The Bennie Dillon condominium association was headed toward financial ruin. In early 2021, a handful of residents determined that the board president, Jonathan Turner, a longtime resident at the historic skyscraper across from the Nashville Public Library downtown, had to be stopped — residents say the deficit spending was unsustainable and his board initiatives were expensive, petty and personal. They say even the board elections were suspect, a closed-door, paper-ballot affair that had kept him in power for three terms.
Turner, now a candidate for the Metro Council in District 19 — the powerful downtown seat that encompasses Broadway and Germantown — was months behind on his own condo dues. Messy finances, including foreclosure proceedings on his Bennie Dillon condo, have plagued Turner since he bought the unit in 2006. There appears to be no public-facing evidence of his company, EllisAmerica, beyond a $6,777 PPP loan in 2021 and business registration documents.
“I made a move and said, ‘You can’t be board president if you haven’t paid your dues,’” remembers Bill Howe, who sold his unit last year. “You can’t fine people when you’re not even paying your HOA fees.”
Howe, along with five other condo owners, filed a lawsuit against Turner, asking the court to remove him from his post. The complaint, dated Feb. 2, 2021, says Turner “unduly harassed the residents of the Bennie Dillon and their guests and in general has become a notorious figure for his tyrannical behavior.”
The plaintiffs’ case was a layup — bylaws state that a board member can’t be more than 30 days behind on dues — and the court suspended Turner from the board with a temporary injunction two weeks later. Soon after, he resigned. In a brief phone call, Turner tells the Scene he is not able to comment on any issues related to the condo association.
Since taking over in 2015, Turner had spent down the association’s reserves, which fell from $357,569 in 2017 to $115,750 at the end of 2020, according to a condo board presentation from August of last year. Under Turner, the board delayed mandatory yearly audits in 2018 and 2019. He spent big on items like a $50,000 lounge remodel while ignoring critical roof repairs, according to condo owner Kathleen Brecker, who was a plaintiff in the case to remove Turner. He spent tens of thousands of condo dollars going after Brecker and her co-owner Jennifer Estes, alleging that they were operating an Airbnb in violation of building rules. The case fell apart.
“We weren’t paying $7,000 for something we didn’t do, based on absolutely no evidence at all," Brecker tells the Scene. "He does these things unilaterally and he’s wasted all this condo money. It was a completely fabricated thing.”
On the board’s side, Howe remembers realizing that Turner had led the association into an expensive, losing battle.
“He said he had all this proof, affidavits, video evidence,” says Howe, who started harboring concerns about Turner soon after Howe joined the condo’s board. ”After six months, we go into our big meeting and Jonathan’s supposed to present evidence. Suddenly, it’s all disappeared. I tell him we can’t proceed. Every bit of that was him going after any resident he had a problem with — it was all personal stuff.”
Through it all, Turner wielded paper proxy votes signed over by other condo owners. A new resident usually got a knock from Turner soon after moving in, says Howe, who was approached by Turner shortly after buying his unit in 2015.
Turner’s concerns about noise from his upstairs neighbor Susan Whitaker escalated to the point that Whitaker filed a protective order against him. Recently, Turner contacted the real estate commission alleging that Michael Gersper, another condo owner and co-plaintiff in the suit that deposed Turner, was trying to devalue the building by turning his unit into an Airbnb. The commission closed the complaint without action.
Today, the condo association is defending itself against a suit from Metropolitan Property Management, Turner’s favored management contractor signed to a five-year deal by Turner just before he was removed from the board. Building rules limit contracts to one year, making the contract void but no less expensive or complicated to untangle.
“There’s an effort underway by [the] current board to convert The Bennie Dillon to a short-term rental building,” Jamie Hollin, Turner’s lawyer, tells the Scene. “Mr. Turner opposes that effort. Naturally, he’s in a conflict w/board members who want otherwise.”
Hollin did not share evidence of an Airbnb conversion with the Scene.
