Former, vacant Daily Telegram buildings on North Winter Street purchased by city of Adrian

ADRIAN — Ownership of the former, and now vacant, Daily Telegram properties along North Winter Street near downtown Adrian are amid changing hands.

As of a decision reached Monday, July 1, the city of Adrian acquired the properties at 133 N. Winter St., 155 N. Winter St., and 205 N. Winter St., purchasing the locations from previous owners The Adrian Development Collaborative, LLC, at a price tag of $500,000.

The purchase was not made in haste, according to several Adrian City Commissioners who spoke during the commission ’s July 1 meeting when a resolution to purchase the properties passed unanimously, 6-0. Commissioner Kelly Castleberry was absent from the meeting.

In fact, Commissioner Bob Behnke was among those who raved about the city’s decision to execute the purchase agreement, calling it a good move on behalf of the city to remove blight, contaminants and other negative things from the city while bringing conditions of Adrian up to a better standard for all to use.

“This is something that is going to address the remediation of blight that exists in our city,” Behnke said of the property purchase. “Without our efforts here, we’re going to have contaminated soil and buildings for generations to come.”

The Daily Telegram building at 133 N. Winter St. and the two other buildings the Telegram owned — the former Access Shoppers' Guide, 155 N. Winter St., and the Eagles buildings just to the north, 205 N. Winter St. — were purchased at an auction in 2021 by a group of local investors with plans to tear the buildings down and dig up the contaminated soil under them and to build apartments/affordable housing units on the site. The properties sold at auction for $335,660.85, which included the $319,677 offer price plus a transaction fee.

Story from October 2021: Daily Telegram buildings in Adrian sold, staff working remotely until new office is leased

Gannett , the company that owns the Telegram and several other newspapers in Michigan and around the country, including The Monroe News , Hillsdale Daily News , Detroit Free Press and USA TODAY , has sold many of the buildings it owns. With smaller staffs, the company decided to move out of its larger buildings to rented offices to control capital costs.

A natural gas production plant was once on that property of North Winter Street, and the buildings have high traces of asbestos. Before The Daily Telegram moved into its former location, the North Winter Street building was an A&P grocery store.

The former Access and Eagles buildings have been condemned by the city of Adrian due to overall building deterioration and the presence of mold and asbestos.

Identified ground contaminants include arsenic, chromium, lead, mercury, selenium, silver, cyanide and ammonia, according to the Michigan Brownfield Redevelopment Program. Some of the contaminants could date as far back as the 1800s. Groundwater tests also revealed slight detections of chloroform, too, back in late 2021.

Nearly three years to this point have been invested in the project by the Adrian Development Collaborative, Mark Murray, one of the members of the group, said previously during an Adrian City Commission meeting.

In December 2023, efforts were stalled in moving forward with cleanup and demolition of the properties when the Lenawee County Land Bank denied a $1 million grant opportunity to ADC to pursue further funding for blight elimination. One of the issues the county Land Bank had with approving the application and sending it along to the state Land Bank was because of the short turnaround time from receiving the request only the day before looking it over. Liability was another concern for the county. Since then, traction at the Telegram properties has been light to nonexistent.

More: Lenawee County Land Bank rejects grant to provide funding for Adrian blight elimination

Now, meanwhile, the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy (EGLE) announced a $20 million allocation for an Environmental Justice Grant opportunity that communities across the state can apply for to reduce environmental health burdens and impacts in Michigan’s environmental justice communities.

At the same July 1 meeting when the Adrian commission approved the purchase agreement for the properties, it also unanimously approved submitting an application for the Environmental Justice Grant in the sum of $500,000 — the same amount in which the city purchased the properties.

“This is a pretty unique opportunity for the city of Adrian to have this (grant) to help address the major issue that we have over on North Winter Street,” Behnke said.

“This will allow us to apply for the grant for the demolition of those properties if you move forward with the purchase agreement on that,” Jay Marks, Adrian Main Street/Downtown Development Authority executive director, said during the commission meeting. “It really helps us remediate blight right in the middle of our town.”

If $500,000 in grant funding is secured, the city should be able to pay for all costs associated with demolition of the properties. There will need to be different conversations with EGLE when addressing the ground contamination, Marks said.

In 2022 Adrian received a legislative earmark of $15 million from the state for downtown improvement projects, blight remediation and beautification efforts to the south branch of the River Raisin as it winds through the city.

Subscribe Now: For all the latest local developments, breaking news, and high school and college sports content

When local investors pitched their idea of a riverfront restoration project to legislators it specifically identified the former Daily Telegram buildings on North Winter Street as the focus of their effort, Adrian City Administrator Greg Elliott said.

“We’re in a position to leverage funds to get those buildings demolished,” said Elliott. “This is very much within the mission of what was pitched to the legislature and what we received enhancement grant funds for; only those enhancement grant funds are being used to acquire this property.”

Comparisons to Project Phoenix shot down

In terms of public transparency and discussion, Behnke stated during the July 1 meeting that the city’s focus on purchasing the former Telegram buildings cannot be compared to Lenawee County’s efforts to purchase land in Tecumseh for a proposed recreation and events center that ultimately didn’t pan out.

“There is a vast difference between this property and the Project Phoenix property,” he said.

Project Phoenix was the name given for the nearly $88 million proposed sports complex that was met with criticism during its spearheading and promotional efforts that date back to early 2019.

Story from June 2022: Lenawee County shelves Project Phoenix proposal

In March 2021, an initial purchase agreement was given the go-ahead by the Lenawee County Board of Commissioners for the Tecumseh Products Co. site and was signed. By August 2021, the county began its community presentations of the concept, and in November, it officially closed on the Tecumseh Products property.

By June 2022, without adequate state or federal funding and the likelihood that such funding had failed because of “misinformation” being shared about the project, it was shelved.

Ken Tokarz, a South Locust Street resident in Adrian, spoke during public comment of the July 1 city commission meeting regarding the purchase of the Winter Street properties, saying the commission has a fiscal responsibility to their taxpayers.

“This project was taken on by a private entity and that private entity was not able to secure a grant from the (Lenawee County) Land Bank, and I think it's ridiculous for the city of Adrian to step in and bail out this company,” he said, referring to the Winter Street project as a nearly same scenario Lenawee County dealt with when it came to the Project Phoenix proposal. “...I think there’s just too many similarities between this and the Phoenix project and you guys were so adamant against the Phoenix project. Now you’re doing something on you own that’s just as bad.”

— Contact reporter Brad Heineman at bheineman@lenconnect.com or follow him on X, formerly Twitter: twitter.com/LenaweeHeineman .

This article originally appeared on The Daily Telegram: Former, vacant Daily Telegram buildings on North Winter Street purchased by city of Adrian