Citizens & Performance
| More

Dearborn, Mich. Sells Florida Apartment Building

In what may have been the only arrangement of its kind, the Midwestern city owned vacation waterfront property in Florida. The sale of it added $6 million to this year’s budget.

BY: | January 2012



This time of year, the sunny beaches of Florida are packed with retirees escaping frigid northern winters. For the past 50 years, senior residents of Dearborn, Mich., have also had a unique escape to coastal living. Dearborn Towers, an eight-story apartment building with 88 units, sits on two waterfront acres in Clearwater, Fla. It has its own pool, private fishing dock and marina. But in what may be the only arrangement of its kind in the nation, it’s actually owned by the city of Dearborn, which is 1,200 miles away.

Dearborn built the Towers in 1960 to offer city residents a special perk: Any retirees in Dearborn could sign up for a unit in the building, for all or part of the year. The building stayed full through the 1990s, and there was typically a waiting list for apartments. By the turn of this century, though, the building’s popularity faded as retirees decided they’d rather buy or rent their own place than lease from the city. While the Towers were never really a drain on city finances -- the apartment building was essentially self-sustaining -- the city began to think about unloading the property. In 2007, Dearborn citizens voted to sell the Towers.

The Towers went on the market in May 2010 for $7.5 million. Thanks to the weak housing market -- especially in Florida -- it turned out to be particularly bad timing. The city got a few offers, but none panned out. (The 2007 vote stipulated that the sale price must meet the building’s appraised price of about $5.9 million.)

Then, this past November, the city announced that it had found a buyer. Although Dearborn won’t disclose the price, the city says it hopes to finalize the sale by the middle of this year. That’s fortunate: In what was perhaps a bit of prehatched chicken counting, the city factored $6 million from the sale into this year’s budget.


If you enjoyed this post, subscribe for updates.

Zach Patton
Zach Patton

Zach Patton -- Executive Editor. Zach has written about a range of topics, including social policy issues and urban planning and design. Originally from Tennessee, he joined GOVERNING as a staff writer in 2004. He received the 2011 Jesse H. Neal Award for Outstanding Journalism

E-mail: zpatton@governing.com
Twitter: @governing

Comments



Add Your Comment

You are solely responsible for the content of your comments. GOVERNING reserves the right to remove comments that are considered profane, vulgar, obscene, factually inaccurate, off-topic, or considered a personal attack.

Comments must be fewer than 2000 characters.

Latest from Citizens & Performance

  • How Two Princetons Became One
  • Taking advantage of a state law encouraging local-government consolidations, the two New Jersey municipalities found a path that other places might follow.

More From Citizens & Performance

GOVERNING Data

Events & Webinars

  • It’s A Paperless, Paperless World..... Thinking Outside the Box to Gain Efficiencies through Prepaid Cards
  • April 23, 2013
  • Public sector organizations are under intense scrutiny to operate as efficiently and effectively as possible and with maximum transparency. An important consideration is the way in which payments are made and managed. Prepaid cards can offer flexibility, security and accountability to governments as a method of dispersing benefits, healthcare and social care payments, child benefits and housing benefits to their constituents.


More Events & Webinars


© 2011 e.Republic, Inc. All Rights reserved.    |   Privacy Policy   |   Site Map