YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – As president of the state association of land banks, Debora Flora, Mahoning County Land Bank executive director, plans to advocate for those organizations while sharing the Mahoning Valley’s full story.
Flora began serving last month as president of the Ohio Land Bank Association, a 71-member organization of land banks across the state.
“The bottom line is that we need a singular voice in Ohio to talk about things that matter to land banks, which also matter to communities that have needed help in performing some demolition activities,” she said.
With the bulk of the demolition work behind the organization, land banks are moving into economic development, Flora added. That includes helping with property revitalization and land assembly to attract other types of development.
Housing is one focus of economic development.
“We all understand what’s happening here with talent attraction and retention and job creation, whether it is Kimberly Clark or what’s happening through YBI or some of the other industries here,” Flora said. “We know that there’s a connection to housing in all of that – that people need quality housing if we’re going to retain people and if we’re going to attract others to live here.”
Land banks can play a critical role in that by making land available for infill housing and by participating in development through the Welcome Home Ohio program, she said. Land banks are eligible to secure those resources to close the gap between the cost of housing construction and the price point of what’s affordable for families. The land bank also has experience in housing renovation.
“But we need to build a pipeline of housing to make that happen,” Flora said. “There are many ways that land banks can intersect.”
Land banks can also be part of commercial redevelopment, including securing vacant land or parcels with buildings that have suffered from deferred maintenance.
Matt Martin, executive director of Trumbull Neighborhood Partnership, which manages the Trumbull County Land Bank, believes Flora’s leadership of the state land bank organization will benefit the region.
“One, having the person from Mahoning County be at the head of the org is huge, but also very specifically having Deb in charge is even bigger …,” he said.
Martin and Flora have led their respective organizations and known each other for more than a decade.
“Having someone who’s local, hyper local, who’s been around, been invested in this since the beginning is priceless to our work and our lobbying efforts and our attempts to influence and shape policy as it affects us,” he said.
While all of Ohio faces a housing shortage, some aspects of the Mahoning Valley’s challenges differ from other counties, Martin said. New construction proves difficult in the Valley. It costs the same to build a home here as it does in other parts of the state, but a builder can’t charge the same in the Valley as in other parts of the state because of the market and what people can afford. It’s important to help legislators to understand that, Martin said.
Flora’s presidential term coincides with Mahoning County staging the state land bank association’s annual conference in April at Waypoint 4180 in Canfield. She said the event will highlight accomplishments of the land banks in Mahoning, Trumbull, Columbiana and Ashtabula counties, those that comprise the Lake to River region. Lake to River Economic Development is the newest JobsOhio partner, announced in 2024. Flora credits Anthony Trevena, executive director of the Western Reserve Port Authority, for suggesting the conference mirror the new economic development district.
Flora liked the idea of showing the commonalities among the four counties but also highlighting the unique stories of each.
Jordan Torrance, executive director of the Ashtabula County Land Bank, expects the conference to include a bus tour featuring some of the land bank projects in Ashtabula County.
One of those projects expected to be completed this fall is in Conneaut. The land bank is working with a developer to build four new homes.
“The first one we sold for $80,000, so these are heavily subsidized by grant funding,” Torrance said. “The value of the home is roughly $180,000. So they’re almost going into these purchases with $100,000 equity.”
Work completed on Bridge Street in the Ashtabula Harbor is another area he hopes to show off on the tour.
Torrance said Flora reached out to him shortly after he was appointed to his job last January.
“I’m very happy about Debora stepping into that position,” he said. “I’m very happy to have a direct line of communication with the president and the executive director there. I think it really positions us well.”
Shawn Carvin, executive director of the Ohio Land Bank Association, formerly served as land bank director at TNP.
Martin wants the Trumbull tour at the conference to highlight the four homes TNP built last year on the former Emerson School property, as well as more homes that will be built later this year at a former school site.
“I want to show sites where we have done or partnered on either infill housing or other economic development projects after demolition,” he said.
Flora looks forward to her two-year term as the OLBA president and is excited about telling the Mahoning Valley’s story in a more complete way than many people are accustomed to hearing.
The Valley has a reputation that people readily return to whenever something here happens in the news.
“It’s easy to reflex backward on some of that history, and I don’t shy away from what the problems are of this area,” Flora said, referring to poverty and industry losses.
Those economic blows have affected the region for a long time, but there’s more to the area than that, she said.
“I want to continue to amp up those stories too,” she said. “The stories that we’re talking about right now – Kimberly Clark wanting to build here and build here in a very substantial way and create the sort of facility here that we haven’t seen come online in a long time. I want people to know that if Mahoning County can recover from one body blow after another for decades, that that’s possible throughout Ohio.”
Pictured at top: Debora Flora, Mahoning County Land Bank executive director and new president of the Ohio Land Bank Association.