Background
Born in New York City in 1941, Esmond Bradley Martin was a dedicated conservationist. He moved to Nairobi, Kenya in the mid 1970s, where he published a variety of books covering historical and anthropological topics. But it was not until 1979, that he found his true calling: Martin was asked by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) to help combat the illegal elephant ivory trade. He first investigation into the ivory trade appeared in December 1979.
The rest of his career was dedicated to protecting elephants against the illegal ivory trade and protecting rhinos against the illegal rhino horn trade. From the late 1970s to 2018, these investigations required Martin to travel a lot and take considerable risks in order to gather data on the ivory trade in the black market. During these investigations, Martin often went deep undercover, documenting everything, including photographing illegals sales of ivory and rhino horns and uncovering all the secrets of merchants. The countries he went undercover in to expose the ivory trade and rhino horn trade include the United States, Congo, Nigeria, Angola, China, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Laos, and Myanmar. It is thanks to Martin’s work that China moved to ban the sale of the rhino horn trade in the 1990s and ivory later on. Esmond Bradley Martin also served as a United Nations special envoy for rhino conservation.
Murder
On February 4, 2018, 76 year old, Esmond Bradley Martin was alone in his home in Nairobi. Martin had just returned from a research trip to Myanmar and was writing about his findings. Around 11am that Sunday morning, Martin left home briefly for a lunch date at Nairobi National Park. He had asked the cook to prepare packed lunch and left with his driver. His wife, Chryssee Perry, also a conservationist, left home at around 2 pm for a meeting at the Nairobi's animal orphanage, where she was a volunteer.
Shortly after 2pm, the cook switched on the electric fence, locked the back door and retired to the servant quarters until 6pm when he returned to make dinner. When the cook arrived at the house, he noticed the electric fence had been switched off which was odd since the fence was always on during the day. Martin’s vehicle was parked outside when his wife returned home some minutes after 6pm. She alerted Martin with " I am back.” She then headed to the library on the ground floor of the building as there was no response.
Chry
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Cedar Falls, Iowa based developer Merge Urban Development plans to demolish the Esmond building and replace it with a $9.8 million mixed use building with 42 apartments and retail. The building, which was most recently low income housing, is currently owned by the Duluth HRA, but has been vacant since being condemned. The HRA is expected to invest $1 million to prepare the site before selling it to the developer for $1. In return, some of the apartments would be for low income. Original plans to renovate the building were changed when vandals tried to remove copper piping, thus increasing repair costs.
Also of note, Merge has a now extended exclusive 1 year contract with the city to redevelop the Kozy. Merge focuses on developments in smaller upper Midwest cities with Opportunity Zones. That is they work with investors that divert money that would be taxed on capital gains and invest it in "economically distressed communities" so as to avoid the tax.
https://www.perfectduluthday.com/2021/04/30/demolition-apartments-is-new-plan-for-esmond-building/
