Land Bank, YNDC Break Ground on 6 New Housing Units

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – The Mahoning County Land Bank, the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corp. and other partners on Thursday broke ground on six new houses planned for the city’s Idora neighborhood.

The six homes will line Mineral Springs Avenue, a one-block street that runs east to west and perpendicular to Glenwood Avenue and Volney Road near Mill Creek Park.

“There are two different styles we’re building,” three of each, said Ian Beniston, executive director of YNDC. “We’ll mix them amongst each other so we have a little diversity of architecture.”

YNDC constructed two new houses along the street several years ago, and Beniston says this effort is a continuation of that program. “These six homes will be sold to homeowners,” he said, not to those seeking rentals.

Deb Flora, executive director of the Mahoning County Land Bank, said the organization has worked closely with YNDC in assembling the land needed for the neighborhood redevelopment project.

“This will be a complete street when this is done,” Flora said. “We helped YNDC acquire these properties back when the land bank was new and YNDC was establishing itself in the Idora neighborhood.”

The groundbreaking ceremony featured remarks from other project partners, including Nikki Posterli, chief of staff for Mayor Jamael Tito Brown; state Rep. Lauren McNally, D-59th; Councilman Julius Oliver, 1st Ward; Jennifer Roller, president of the Raymond John Wean Foundation; and representatives of Lt. Gov. Jon Husted’s office and the office of U.S. Rep. Michael Rulli, R-6th.

Over the past 15 years, the partnership helped compile vacant lots and houses, demolish the blighted properties and restore and landscape the abandoned lots, Flora said.

Now that effort has come full circle, she said. “They did some greening and gardening on some of those properties. The evolution may have been slow, but here we are today talking about new housing and recreating a block that really needed it.”

All six houses are expected to be finished and on the market by May, Flora said.

Work is well underway on one of the houses, while front loaders and earth movers were busy preparing three other lots along the street.

Each house is a three-bedroom, two-and-a-half-bathroom structure that measures approximately 1,500 square feet, Beniston said. The houses will also have a full basement and a two-car garage. Joe Koch Construction of Austintown will serve as the general contractor on the project.

“They’ll be more energy efficient than typical new builds,” he said. “The goal is that they are high-quality, sustainable and affordable for working people.”

The effort is part of the Ohio Department of Development’s Welcome Home Ohio grant program, an initiative launched last year. The program set aside $100 million for grants and another $50 million in tax credits to assist the purchase, rehabilitation or new construction of owner-occupied, single-family homes across the state.

The land bank received $2.4 million in funding for local projects, part of which will be used for the six Mineral Springs homes, Beniston said. The cost to build the six houses is approximately $1.8 million. Under the program, buyers whose income is 80% of the median income in Mahoning County are eligible to purchase the homes, according to Welcome Home legislation.

“The target audience is working families that have a household income at or below 80% of the average median income,” Flora said. “For a family of four, that would be about $60,000.”

Once completed, the houses will list at $180,000 apiece, the threshold price for the Welcome Home program, Beniston said. “We’re spending more than that per house,” he said.

Beniston said YNDC has thus far helped construct 12 houses in the region. In addition to the six started Thursday, the organization said it has plans to construct another 35 single-family homes in the future.

“In large part, we have the funding in place, we just don’t have all the details as far as the locations,” Beniston said.

YNDC and the land bank are also partnering on the rehabilitation of six other houses across various parts of the city, Beniston added.

Pictured at top: Deb Flora and Ian Beniston.

Copyright 2024 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.