(Toledo, OH) Lucas County Land Bank leaders say they're ahead of schedule.
The land bank set a goal of renovating or demolishing 1,500 properties in 1,500 days. Monday marked the halfway point, but leaders say the land bank is almost a year ahead of schedule. 920 houses or buildings turned to rubble, another 158 houses or businesses renovated, many of them already occupied.
One recently-renovated house on Durango Drive just off Airport Highway is priced to sell at $74,000, one of the highest prices that South Toledo neighborhood has seen in more than a decade.
But local leaders explain that's the point of the land bank-- turning vacant properties back into productive use, many of them abandoned during the recession when people lost their homes to foreclosure. The initiative is supposed to wrap up in 2020.