SEASIDE – Clatsop County formally took ownership of the Carlyle Apartments in Seaside this week. But the facility, which serves primarily lower-income residents, will remain in operation.

On Monday, Jeff Hazen, Clatsop County Board of Commissioners chairman, signed a contract that completes the transfer of the 26-unit apartment complex, which came into the county’s possession following a lengthy legal dispute.

As part of the ownership transfer, Clatsop County paid the former owner, Jesse Autry Ehler, $823,183.79 to satisfy the terms of a 2006 legal ruling that confirmed the county’s ownership of the property on Necanicum Drive.

At the same time the county has taken ownership, it also has hired a property management firm to operate the facility. Income Property Management Company (IPM) of Portland manages a number of housing developments in Clatsop County, including low-income facilities such as Owens-Adair and Meriwether Village in Astoria, Wapiti in Warrenton and Clatsop Shores in Seaside.

“Hiring IPM will help maintain affordable housing, and free the county from the burden of managing the apartments, for which we do not have the staff or resources,” County Manager Duane Cole said.

The transfer of ownership should mean few changes for Carlyle residents. Income Property Management is providing tenants with an introductory letter explaining the transfer, giving the contact number of the company’s local representative and providing instructions on paying rent, according to Kirby Kirch, IPM vice president.

“For the most part it will be business as usual,” he said.

The company has been directed by the county to make sure all the units have the required number of working smoke detectors, and to replace some heater units that were subject to a recall, Kirch said.

Current tenants will be required to complete new application forms confirming their legal residency and submit to a criminal history check, but there will be no eligibility requirements based on income or employment that are typically applied to new tenants of low-income housing.

A team including representatives of the county, IPM, the Clatsop County Housing Authority and Clatsop Community Action plans to tour the complex within the next month to assess the condition of the facility, which was originally constructed in the 1960s as a nursing home and remodeled in the early 1990s when it was converted into an apartment complex.

The county originally intended to sell the Carlyle Apartments to the Clatsop County Housing Authority, and signed a sales agreement with the agency in early 2007. But as the case between the county and Ehler dragged on, the housing authority in 2008 asked that the sale be put on hold and that its initial payment be returned.

The county remains in discussion with the housing authority about a possible sale. Depending on the outcome of the inspection, the agency may present another purchase plan to the county, officials said.

In the meantime, the county has budgeted for operation of the apartments in the 2009-10 fiscal year budget. Rental income, estimated at $168,000 a year is expected to cover both the management contract with IPM and pay for repairs to the facility.

The dispute surrounding the Carlyle goes back decades.

The property was one of several parcels of vacant land that Clatsop County deeded to the city of Seaside in the early 1960s for the construction of local streets. The deed carried a reversionary clause stating the property would revert to the county’s ownership if it was not used for the intended purpose. In 1967 the city sold the property to a private party who built a nursing home on the site. The nursing home operated until 1990, and the facility was purchased three years later by Ehler, who converted it into a 26-unit apartment complex.

The county discovered the reversionary clause in 2004 and went to court to secure its ownership rights under the deed. In 2006 a judge awarded the county possession of the property, provided that it pay Ehler $832,183.79 for the value of the facility and other improvements on the land.

Ehler appealed the ruling to the Oregon Court of Appeals, but last March the court upheld the original decision. Ehler indicated he did not intend to pursue any further legal challenges, but in the following months the county was not able to obtain Ehler’s cooperation to inspect the property. On June 10, the county commissioners approved a supplemental budget appropriation to allow the immediate purchase of the Carlyle in order to end the impasse.

The purchase amount was budgeted for in the county’s 2009-10 budget, and comes out of the county’s share of state timber revenue.