By Liz Holland

Salisbury City Council members agreed to move forward with selling the Mitchell Landing Apartments, a housing complex on the city’s West Side for low-income residents.

Council members recently accepted a bid from Green Street Housing for $1.38 million for the 2.68-acre property at 135 Mitchell Road. It has five buildings with a total of 24 apartments, a management office, laundry room and community room.

In August, the City Council declared the complex as surplus property, the necessary first step to sell it. City officials next advertised for proposals. Green Street Housing was the only bidder, Jennifer Miller, Director of Procurement, said at the Nov. 22 council meeting.

The decision to sell the apartment complex came after a serious maintenance issue was discovered in June, requiring the relocation of all the tenants in one building.

As soon as the management company for the complex detected a problem with a support beam, the city took action by moving the tenants and calling in a structural engineer, Deborah Stam, the city’s grants manager, told council members at a June 21 work session.

The city paid for all of the tenants’ moving expenses, including packing up all of their belongings, with up to $20,000 authorized for that purpose by the state Department of Housing and Community Development, Stam said.

The city is expected to stipulate that the new owner must honor current leases and also allow the relocated tenants to return if they want.

Green Street Housing is based in Salisbury and owns numerous other affordable housing complexes in the region, including the Samuel Chase Apartments in Princess Anne. The company also was selected by the city to redevelop a parking lot on Route 50 into affordable housing.

The city bought the Mitchell Landing property in 1984 from the Salisbury Brick Co. for $200,000, according to state land records.