LIMA — Allen County Land Bank is still waiting for a final total of how much grant money it will be awarded from the Ohio Housing Finance Agency, but work is continuing in the agency to ensure it is ready for demolishing blighted houses in the county.
“We already have enough funding in our account that we’re starting to take down houses,” Allen County Treasurer Rachael Gilroy said. “We’ve already taken down two of them, and there are more in the pipeline that the land bank already owns that we’ll be able to take down as well.”
The land bank was notified earlier that it would be receiving a grant award with a minimum distribution of $500,000, which Gilroy estimates would demolish about 30 houses. While the grant money would go a long way to removing the over 300 blighted houses the land bank has earmarked for demolition, Gilroy noted as properties get sold to adjacent land owners or for home or business development, the agency can become more self-funding.
“Especially with the commercial properties that we may get in, those that we’re able to market later, we’ll be able to keep the funding for those,” she said. “The grant doesn’t apply to commercial buildings, but we’ll be able to take those down with other land bank funds. That way, we’ll be able to continue the cycle and bring those sales proceeds back into the land bank and acquire more properties that need demolished.”
In the meantime, the land bank is continuing to add to its pipeline of potential properties, looking both within the city of Lima and in the surrounding county. Currently, commercial real estate in Spencerville and a residential property in Elida are being considered.
“Our phones are ringing constantly with folks talking about properties near them and what they’d like to do if that building would come down or what they’d like to see in their neighborhood,” Gilroy said.
