"That's robbing me:" Landlord accused of keeping money from potential property tenants

MILWAUKEE -- A daycare business, a tax preparer, a barbershop. Three businesses that want to set up shop in Milwaukee's central city. The owners even paid a landlord thousands of dollars. In the end, they say they are stuck holding their bags and out their money.

There's not a lot of business going on at a commercial building near 38th and Villard. But there's plenty of outrage from business owners.

"He's running electricity from a private residence to a commercial building," said Lorenzo Williams.

Lorenzo Williams

Lorenzo Williams says he signed a lease to open his tax business there with a promise from the landlord, Williams identifies as Mike Dykeman, that the office would be ready.

"He never finished anything he was going to do. So I asked for my money back. He stopped taking my calls. He won't give me back my money," said Williams.

The floor is not done. Williams says there's not even electricity.

"He's taking security deposits from people and he's just taking their money," said Williams.

Another would-be tenant, Sparkle Riley, showed up and confronted a man who said he's with the company.

"He's a good person," said the man who says he's with the company.

"No he's not," Riley said.

"It's a misunderstanding," said the man who says he's with the company.

"No he's not a good person," said Riley.

Riley says she paid a couple thousand dollars to rent a building on Hopkins from the same landlord. She had plans to open a daycare but the building was not brought up to code. The landlord still has her down payments. She says she was supposed to take occupancy April 1st.

"That's robbing me. You got my money and he's holding on to it," said Riley.

City records show some of Dykeman's properties and LLC's use his address on Capitol -- one of his past properties that the city foreclosed on in 2013. Another address was impossible for us to locate.

"I never had anyone gangster me out of my money like this and this is what this guy is doing. He's gangstering the community out of their money," said Williams.

FOX6 got a hold of Dykeman by phone. When we told them who we were, he hung up.

The city's Commercial Division of Neighborhood Services says it's sending out a special enforcement on the Villard property for an emergency inspection. But they advise, always get things in writing before you hand over money.