Fairborn to buy former bank land for new homes downtown

The former US Bank drive through at 31 N. Central Ave. closed a few months ago and Fairborn wants to purchase the two lots and have homes built on them. FILE

Credit: FILE

Credit: FILE

The former US Bank drive through at 31 N. Central Ave. closed a few months ago and Fairborn wants to purchase the two lots and have homes built on them. FILE

FAIRBORN — The city plans to buy a small piece of land on North Central Avenue near the heart of downtown Fairborn, to have homes built there.

The former US Bank drive-through at 31 N. Central closed a few months ago and Fairborn wants to purchase the two lots, City Manager Rob Anderson said.

The city plans to spend $110,000 on the land, records show. Anderson said the property formerly housed two Osborn homes that had been moved to that site. Most of the town of Osborn was moved to the Fairborn area during construction of the Huffman dam in the 1920s.

The drive through was built in 1977, Greene County land records show.

“With the drive through no longer being necessary and the property going up for sale, it made sense to try to ... close the missing gap in housing along Central Avenue,” Anderson said. “The way that it was way back when those houses were removed from Osborn to this location.”

The city has been working with a local Realtor on the land, which is owned by Miami Bank National, county auditor’s office records show. The two parcels combined are appraised at 163,700, county records show.

“We do not intend to do any construction here,” Anderson said. “It’s just an opportunity to work with a developer to build two houses that replicate the houses that were demolished.”

Fairborn Mayor Paul Keller said the move will help that section of Central and help “get us back to our look that we were once before.”

Anderson said the city hopes to close on the sale in the next 30 to 60 days and begin the project this year.

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