“One of the most visible impacts we can have is just getting rid of the stuff that is not rehab-able — the stuff that is obviously blight that needs to be demolished,” he said.
Most of the properties that will be demolished are residential units, but there are some larger commercial buildings that could cost six figures to take down.
Ohio’s Building Demolition and Site Revitalization Program has awarded $5.3 million to the Montgomery County Land Bank for new demolition projects.
The grant award in Montgomery County, combined with local matching dollars worth 25% of project costs, will help demolish about 103 properties in Dayton, 35 in Trotwood, eight in Riverside and a few others in Harrison Twp. Moraine and West Carrollton.
In previous funding rounds in the last couple of years, the Demolition and Site Revitalization Program gave the local land bank more than $11 million for demolition and site cleanup.
Those dollars, in conjunction with local matching funds, are expected to take down and remediate 260 blighted properties across the county, primarily in the city of Dayton.
Elsewhere in the region, Miami County will get about $1.75 million for demolition of 10 sites. Their demo list appears to include the former Piqua Red Roof Inn at I-75 and U.S. 36, plus 223 West High Street in Piqua, which is the address of the old YMCA.
Greene County will receive $330,000 to raze six sites. One of them is the vacant Xenia Ramada Inn at 300 Xenia Towne Square, where developers are working to create a new Market District.
In Montgomery County, Bradley said most of the homes and buildings that will be leveled using this new grant funding are vacant, blighted and were abandoned by their owners.
He said most properties are on local cities’ nuisance lists and are not owned by the land bank.
The Dayton Daily News visited more than a dozen properties on the demolition list and determined some of the structures already have been reduced to piles of rubble.
Bradley said blight remains a major issue in Montgomery County even though Dayton and other jurisdictions have spent millions of dollars knocking down eyesores.
Dayton has vowed to spend about $22 million to demolish more than 1,000 nuisance properties using some of its COVID relief funds and other funding sources.
Steve Gondol, Dayton’s director of planning, neighborhoods and development, said the city likely will receive about $4 million from the state grant award.
He said that will help remove some troubled and nuisance properties that the city has identified but until now did not have money to address.
Last year, the city said there were hundreds of homes and residential buildings it would like to eliminate if it received more demo funds.
“It resolves a considerable portion of our structural nuisance inventory that was identified as unfunded,” Gondol said.
Most of the properties to be demolished in Dayton are concentrated in a few fairly small areas of West Dayton, mostly near Greenwich Village and Residence Park, west of North Gettysburg Avenue. Streets with numerous addresses on the demolition list include Mia (11) and Hoover (6), plus Eichelberger (8), Waymire (7), Queens (7), Prescott (6) and Genesee (6).
The Dayton region needs every dollar it can get for demolition, Bradley said, arguing that blight removal can help reduce crime and improve mental health and sets the stage for redevelopment.
Once the structures are removed, the lots that remain can be used for new in-fill housing, side yards and pocket parks, he said.
Bradley said the land bank hopes that it will finish up demolition activities next year that are being paid for with state grants from previous funding rounds.
Multiple organizations have said Dayton needs more quality affordable housing. Bradley said the housing units that will be demolished usually are nuisance properties and are in such bad shape that rehab isn’t financially feasible.
He said some units are in areas with low property values and the cost of renovating the homes would far exceed what they would be worth after renovation.
The state overall has awarded more than $270 million in grants through its Demolition and Site Revitalization Program to help bulldoze more than 5,000 properties.
Land bank officials said the average cost of home demolition has risen to nearly $20,000, and duplexes and multi-family buildings can be much more expensive to remove.
The city has estimated that most homes cost about $18,000 to tear down, but the bill can be significantly higher if asbestos disposal is necessary.
The land bank’s demolition activities started off slow when the organization launched, back in 2011, said Carolyn Rice, chair of the land bank.
But now Rice said, “We are cooking and doing it right.”
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