Auctioned Properties to Become New Single-Family Homes

A city program to reduce blight and create affordable single-family housing gained ground Tuesday when a Harris Street property was bought for just $4,000 at public auction.

Bidding on behalf of the city was Bridget Susel, grants and neighborhood programs administrator in the . The purchase, funded through the Neighborhood Stabilization Program, will enable the city to construct a new single-family home at 350 Harris St. The home will be sold, with proceeds going back into the NSP fund.

The Harris Street parcel was one of five properties being sold Tuesday at City Hall by Dennis Eberhart of Yankee Trader Auction Co. in Kent. The auction was ordered by city Law Director Jim Silver, court-appointed administrator of the late Jerry D. Sales’ insolvent estate.

Silver said an insolvent estate is one where outstanding debts are higher than total assets. Because the city is one of the estate’s numerous creditors, Silver was eligible to apply to become estate administrator on the city’s behalf.

He told the small auction audience that the vacant parcels on the auction block could be bought “free and clear,” as the Portage County auditor, treasurer and prosecutor had agreed to waive nearly $300,000 worth of liens against the properties.

There were no bidders for a 60-by-180-foot parcel located at 223 Harris St. or a 30-by-60-foot lot at 1002 Franklin Ave. at the corner of West Elm Street. Both parcels are likely too small to be buildable.

Also, Silver said, the federal Environmental Protection Agency is currently performing a contaminant clean-up at the Franklin Avenue lot, former site of Jerry Sales’ long-closed dry-cleaning business.

A 120-by-153-foot lot at 409 Dodge St. was purchased by lone bidder Maria Walter of Kent. She paid the mandatory minimum of $4,500, which represents half of the property’s appraised value.

Walter said she and her husband, Erik, lived in the neighborhood for 10 years before moving to Meloy Road. They still own and rent out single-family homes at 446 Dodge St. and 1018 Pine St., both of which the couple gutted and renovated. Walter said they will likely build one or two small rental houses on their new lot, which is already subdivided into two parcels.

A property at 351 Dodge St. measuring 77 feet by 120 feet sold for the mandatory minimum price of $4,750 to David Shea, executive director of Community Action Council of Portage County.

Shea said CAC can now begin planning for a neighborhood garden it will create at the site next spring in conjunction with the South End Empowerment Association. Overseeing the garden project will be Arlyne Habeeb, CAC director of community and outreach services, who has had success with a similar effort in Ravenna.

Susel was the lone bidder on the 350 Harris St. property at the mandatory minimum price of $4,000. The property is divided into three parcels – two of which front on Pine Street – that have a combined measurement of 60 by 190 feet.

The Harris lot will be used for construction of the NSP’s second new single-family house. Ground will be broken next Monday on the program’s first house at 527 Fairchild Ave.

On behalf of the NSP, Susel bought the foreclosed Fairchild property from a lender at a negotiated price of $19,800. The lot’s uninhabitable house was demolished to make way for the new one being built for the city by Family & Community Services Inc. The nonprofit agency is acting as the city’s developer and general contractor to expedite the bidding and construction processes.

F&CS will sell the completed 1,350-square-foot home to an income-eligible family, then turn the proceeds over to the city to redeposit in the NSP fund. Susel said F&CS already has seven applicants interested in buying the house, which will include a basement and two-car attached garage.

Since the city was awarded $350,000 in federal NSP funds two years ago, Susel has arranged for the court-ordered demolitions of eight blighted properties in the city, most of them located in the south end of Kent. A ninth house will be demolished this fall.