ADRIAN — A decision could be coming soon on the future of the Adrian Inn property, but city commissioners delayed action at the April 7 meeting because they felt they did not yet have enough information.
An item was on the agenda to hire a contractor to clean furniture, wall hangings, and miscellaneous property out of the building in preparation for demolition, at a cost of $27,750. But after learning that an offer had been made to purchase the property for $250,000, commissioners took that decision off of the agenda in order to have more time to consider all the options.
Acting city administrator Vince Emrick told commissioners that the city has received a verbal offer from Adrian College to buy the property for student housing, with a commitment that the college would demolish the building within six months.
Commissioner Bob Behnke asked if it makes sense to put money into demolition when the city has a chance to sell it to a buyer who will take responsibility for the demolition themselves.
The Adrian College proposal drew concern from commissioners Gordon Gauss and Mary Roberts over the idea of selling the land to a tax-exempt organization instead of getting it back on the tax rolls.
“We have so many nontaxable properties already in the city of Adrian, compared to any other community in our county,” Roberts said.
But she also did not close the door on the idea.
“If we have a firm offer where that balance might be skewed a little bit because of the costs for tearing it down, could I be persuaded to vote to allow that to happen? Possibly,” she said.
Commissioner Doug Miller said the city should get an appraisal of the property.
“We need to … at least get an idea of what that property is worth,” he said. “We continue to throw numbers around. Let’s find out what it’s really worth.”
In response to a question from Mayor Angie Sword Heath, engineering services director Matt Tomaszewski said delaying action on the clean-out proposal would not jeopardize the city’s ability to get the job done before the contractor’s busy period this summer, if the city does decide to go ahead with the demolition itself.
Tomaszewski also said that bids from contractors for asbestos removal and demolition would come in later in the week, giving the city more information about demolition costs.
The commission voted unanimously to table any action.
The city purchased the Adrian Inn for $800,000 in 2022 as a short-term measure to help people who were displaced by the emergency evacuation of Riverview Terrace, but the building — which had been causing headaches for city officials even before the purchase — is in bad shape, and in previous discussions, commissioners have all agreed that it needs to be torn down.
