MANSFIELD — The Richland County Land Bank voted Tuesday to seek more than $500,000 to purchase, abate and demolish a building on Mansfield’s Main Street.
Land bank members voted Tuesday afternoon to apply for $549,500 in funding from the Ohio Department of Development’s Brownfield Remediation Program for 290 North Main Street.
The property is owned by Volunteers of America but hasn’t been in use for about 12 years, according to land bank executive director Amy Hamrick.
Land bank board members voted to purchase the property for $35,000, contingent on funding from the ODOD and the city of Mansfield.
Mansfield City Council must first vote on whether or not to provide $180,300 — 25 percent of the project costs — as a grant match.
Mansfield Mayor Jodie Perry said the vote will be added as a last-minute agenda item, since the grant application period begins Wednesday morning.
Perry said creating a clean slate at the site complements the city’s ongoing Main Street Corridor Improvement Project.
Council will also be considering a match needed for a second application by the land bank for the same program.
The other application seeks funds to remediate a former gas station site on Bowman Avenue.
Hamrick said the estimated cost for the 290 North Main Street is $729,800. That includes the purchase price for the property, asbestos analysis, demolition, abatement, environmental oversight, administration costs and accounting fees.
Richland County Commissioner Tony Vero ultimately joined fellow board members in voting yes on the grant application, but said he did so begrudgingly.
“While it isn’t Richland County taxpayer dollars, it is taxpayer dollars,” he said. “We’re doing (the property owner) a huge solid here and they’re saying, ‘Well, we still want you to purchase this property.’”
Perry and board vice chair Jeff Parton agreed that the situation wasn’t ideal, but that the ODOD funds may provide local officials their best chance to clean up the property.
“If we don’t do it now, what’s to say that two years from now, there’s going to be money out there to do it?” Parton said.
Hamrick said while the property is located in the city’s floodplain, it will have redevelopment potential after the building is demolished.
According to attorney John Studenmund, the property cannot be used for any correctional purposes like a jail or probation office due to restrictive covenants on the property established when the property was purchased in 2011.
Perry told board members she spoke with members of the local historic community and confirmed the building has no historic value.
Hamrick said the building is “fairly solid” but does have some bricks pulling away from the facade, leaks in the roof and “tons” of asbestos.
Perry said she’s toured the building and it “has a lot of issues.”
“It has a lot of really unique things that don’t make it very easy to transition into another use,” she said.
“With the opportunity with the state funding and a willing partner, I think it’s a good time (for the project.) I want to make sure it doesn’t fall into further disrepair.”
