ADRIAN — A developer is planning to build about 50 single-family rental homes on the site of the former Bixby Hospital on Riverside Avenue, and demolition of the hospital building could begin as early as this summer.

Michael Collier of the real estate development company Collier Gibson spoke at the Adrian City Commission’s January 16 study session about the plan. The company is asking the city to consider a $900,000 loan to help speed up the project.

The proposed development would cover about 7 acres and the plans currently call for 53 homes. They would be one story each, and a mix of two-bedroom and three-bedroom houses ranging in size from about 900 square feet to 1,100 square feet. Collier said rents would probably range from $1,200 to $1,400 per month.

However, Collier said, this would not be a typical subdivision.

“We’re looking to do something a little unique,” he said. “It will not have a typical neighborhood feel. It will have more of a community feel.”

The development would consist of homes clustered around shared community areas, modeled after a community called Black Apple in Bentonville, Arkansas. 

Collier said the development would aim to address the “missing middle” of the housing market. 

The term “missing middle” is generally used in two ways. First, it refers to housing that falls in between apartments and the large single-family homes that have dominated most new developments since World War II. Second, it refers to affordability, trying to offer single-family homes that don’t cost as much as the typical suburban house.

Collier Gibson has worked out a deal with ProMedica in which the company will take possession of the land after the demolition of the old Bixby building is finished.

“They want to ensure that the hospital is demolished and that they’ve met their obligation to the community prior to letting us officially own it,” Collier said.

He noted that the Grace Christman Medical Building, which includes the ProMedica Hickman Cancer Center, will not be demolished. ProMedica plans to keep that building operational, he said.

“They want to maintain that building and intend on using it for a number of years,” he said.

The plans call for demolition to begin around July 15 with workers clearing out the building, which Collier said will take a few weeks, and then the tearing-down of the building itself will take about 12 weeks, meaning demolition could be completed by the end of October. Collier said ProMedica is paying for the majority of the demolition costs.

The company is asking the city for a pre-construction loan of $903,850, with a payback period of 36 months. Collier said this would allow the company to speed up the development process and have the project completed 1 ½ to two years sooner.

City administrator Greg Elliott said the loan would not be a big risk for the city, noting that the property itself would be the collateral and that, once the hospital is demolished, the land would be valuable.

Commissioner Bob Behnke asked whether some of the houses could be reserved as lower-income units. Elliott said the city could ask the developer to consider that, but added that even without some units being designated as low-income housing, the project would still increase access to housing in Adrian.

“Housing is supply and demand, and if we can add 50 units to our market, that’s going to open something else up elsewhere,” he said.

He added that the proposed rental rates are “pretty good in our market.”

Mayor Angela Sword Heath said two of the city’s biggest problems right now are the lack of housing and dealing with vacant buildings.

“You’re hitting both of those, so thank you very much for considering Adrian,” she said.

The hospital, at 818 Riverside Ave., opened in 1957, replacing the original Emma L. Bixby Hospital at the corner of Maumee and Locust streets. It was closed in 2020 and replaced by the new ProMedica Charles and Virginia Hickman Hospital on M-52.