The land bank has previously purchased properties, including those with dilapidated, abandoned homes on them, for as little as a few thousand dollars. In other cases, the land bank has worked out acquisition at no cost because a property owner who is heavily delinquent on past property taxes due agrees to hand over the property in what is called a Deed in Lieu of Foreclosure.

The major factor that made the Burgess Street and North Mulberry Street properties heftier in price, Gottke offered, is because of liens and judgments that had been placed against them that needed to be paid off before land bank acquisition. Although land banks are empowered by state law as quasi-governmental entities to acquire property in most instances without having to pay back taxes, that does not apply to other property debt items like liens.

Also involved in the acquisitions is the land bank’s mission to improve neighborhoods by buying blighted properties and selling them to parties interested in new development or renovation. The two properties were continuous nuisances, with about 150 police calls involving the two homes since 2018. Those police calls involved situations of illegal drug use, trespassing and fighting, he noted, and such properties can devalue the properties around them.

The Burgess Street property was likely the bigger headache of the two and is in worse shape, so it will be demolished with the property sold in the future, Gottke said. Before the land bank acquired the property at its steep price, the previous owner had initiated eviction proceedings against some of its previous occupants. But Municipal Court Judge John Thatcher put a 60-day stay on the proceeding, ordered in March, due to an Ohio Supreme Court ruling that put a temporary halt on evictions due to hardships caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The 60-day period expired on July 19, and the last tenants were required to move out before Land Bank acquisition. The last of the North Mulberry Street tenants moved out without eviction needed, he added. The Mulberry Street property is in better shape inside than the Burgess Street property so it could be rehabilitated by a buyer, Gottke said.