by Maggie LaNoue
At its Sept. 2 meeting, the Albion City Council approved applications for Community Development Block Grant funding to rehabilitate three downtown buildings. The requests total more than $618,000.
The properties include 217 S. Superior Street, home of the Superior Street Mercantile, which applied for about $245,000, and two others nearby at 300 S. Superior and 105 W. Porter Street, which together requested about $373,000.
Public records show that the first property is owned by Albion Reinvestment Corporation, while the latter two are held by ACE Investment Properties LLC. ARC holds 33 parcels downtown, and ACE controls 43, meaning the two companies together own more than 75 Albion parcels, many in the heart of downtown. The corporate structures behind these entities are not fully transparent to the public, even as their decisions influence much of Albion’s central district.
The grant applications described a total of five upstairs rental units, with one unit designated as low-income. During public comment, resident Garrett Brown questioned how that would meet the federal requirement. “If there are five units, and only one is low income, how does that add up to 51 percent?” he asked.
By rule, CDBG funding requires that at least 51 percent of units be affordable to low- or moderate-income households. Interim City Manager Doug Terry explained that while the applications move forward from the city, oversight is handled at the state level. “The important thing to remember is these are state programs. The city doesn’t get the final say — the state reviews the applications and monitors the compliance. What we’re doing tonight is simply approving the submittal. If the state approves it, then it brings outside dollars into Albion and helps us continue to build downtown.” He added that he believed the affordability requirement would likely extend for ten years, though the final terms would be set by the Michigan State Housing Development Authority (MSHDA), which administers CDBG funding statewide.
Under the terms of the program, the property owners — not the city — are responsible for providing the required local match. For these projects, that would amount to roughly $81,000 from ARC and $124,000 from ACE, or about $205,000 combined. The city itself is not contributing funds.
Albion’s median household income stood at $40,040 in 2023, down from $41,594 the year before. With rising housing costs, the addition of affordable units is widely acknowledged as a pressing need. Still, the concentration of property ownership in just two entities, and the relative opacity of their structures, has become part of the ongoing discussion about development and transparency in Albion’s future.
After discussion, the council voted to approve the applications, sending them on to the state for review and possible funding.
