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At a meeting of the city Redevelopment Authority Friday, the board agreed to sell two blighted homes to developers under renovation agreements, while also receiving reports on nine other renovation projects at various stages of completion involving blighted or financially encumbered structures.
Friday's activity represents the continued "scaling up" of an initiative designed to use measures exclusively available to government to rescue problem properties that would otherwise slide toward demolition, usually by removing obstacles, so the properties become attractive for private developers.
"(The initiative) is still growing, although I can't say how far it will grow," said the city's Community Development Director Eric Luchansky, a key authority staffer.
Keys to the yearslong development of the initiative include creation of the authority's land bank, which can intervene to buy properties before they go up for public auction at the county's annual judicial tax sale, where most liens are extinguished; revival of the city's Blighted Property Review Committee, whose blight declaration is needed to obtain properties by eminent domain when owners are unavailable or uncooperative; and the naming of a blight manager -- Josh Kaufman -- who, along with other officials, is on constant lookout for problem properties that aren't too far gone to rehabilitate.
Another key is the ongoing compilation of a list of developers who have demonstrated an ability to turn problem properties into ones that are beneficial to their neighborhoods in a reasonable time.
"Where we want to be is to have a multitude of contractors interested," Luchansky said. "So we can move on to the next project: rinse and repeat."
In most cases, the authority's role is to get properties to the point where it makes financial sense for the private sector to take them on, with the firm hope of a profit.
"We operate in an area where all options are exhausted, and we need to step in and take the tricky properties," Luchansky said.
The authority eliminates the tricky parts, so private developers become comfortable.
It's often a matter of wiping away tax liens via the authority's intermunicipal agreements with the city itself, the school district and the county.
Luchansky this week asked the Altoona Water Authority for a similar agreement.
It can also be a matter of clearing up "a clouded title," said board member Ron Beatty, a city councilman.
In addition to coming to the RA through tax sales, the blight committee and Kaufman's recommendations, properties may also arrive through donations and offers to sell from family members and heirs who don't want to deal with the hassles and complications that sometimes attends real estate ownership, according to officials.
Kaufman's role includes "digging into ownership," an effort that can uncover individuals willing to deal with the authority.
It's important to be persistent, so that reluctant ones become "willing to play ball," Kaufman said.
The authority deliberately started out slowly, to ensure that its initial projects were a success, according to Beatty.
It began with a trio of blighted homes in Fairview, with the first development agreement accepted in November 2024.
The authority is going to need additional staff as growth continues, according to Beatty.
Eventually, the authority hopes to be rehabilitating more homes than the city demolishes, said authority Chairman Richard Fiore.
But it's always best when the private sector can take on renovations unaided, Beatty and others said.
The sale of the two blighted homes on Friday -- one at 516 East Atlantic Ave. to JTAN Homes for $51,500 and a Knickerbocker rowhouse at 4039 Fifth Ave. to Brannock and Shaw Properties for $5,000 -- will be executed at some point during the respective renovations of those homes, according to officials.
Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 814-949-7038.