ADRIAN — Riverview Terrace, the apartment complex at 400 College Ave. for low-income senior citizens and people with disabilities, is still only at about 50 percent capacity after reopening at the end of 2024.

Representatives of Medallion Management, which operates Riverview Terrace, addressed the Adrian City Commission at its May 19 meeting.

Before the building was closed for major structural repairs in 2022, the maximum income to rent an apartment was 60% of Area Median Income for all units. Now, Nancy DeFrancesco told the commission, only 10% of the units are at that level, while 90% of them must be rented by people with incomes lower than 50% of the median. 

That means that, for the vast majority of apartments, the maximum income level allowed in order to rent is $23,400 rather than $26,730. As a result, fewer people are eligible to rent.

This change was a requirement of the Michigan State Housing Development Authority funding that was used to make the repairs, according to Scott Beltz, another Medallion representative.

The city of Adrian has an arrangement with Medallion Management to accept a Payment In Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) and a service agreement payment instead of traditional property taxes. Beltz said that because rentals didn’t begin until the end of 2024 and the building is still only about half rented, it would be very difficult for the company to make the service agreement payment at the end of June. He said that he wanted to be completely up-front with the city about the situation, and asked the commission to consider delaying implementation of the service agreement by a year. The PILOT is not an issue because it is based on the apartment complex’s revenue, he said.