MOUNT VERNON — Twelve affordable homes. Thirteen properties acquired. Seventeen properties transferred out. Nearly $5 million in grants.
Those numbers help tell the 2025 story of the Knox County Land Reutilization Corp., aka the Knox County Land Bank.
But they only tell part of the story.
“It’s fun work. We’re doing cool things, and you’ll get to see them for years later,” board president Tyler Griffith said at the annual meeting on April 14.
One of the “cool things” Land Bank President Sam Filkins cited is the success story of 200 Pittsburgh Ave., a vacant, blighted house across from the entrance of Ariel-Foundation Park.
Griffith originally recommended demolishing the house, but after examining the interior, the board decided against demolition.
“It turned out to be a beautiful property,” Griffith said.
Filkins said that turning a vacant house used for storage into a “really great house that a family can live in” shows the blight remediation work the land bank can do.
Demolitions, brownfield and beautification work, and Mount Vernon Nazarene University’s students starting classes in the lower level of 18 E. Vine St. are among the land bank’s other accomplishments in 2025.
However, Filkins acknowledged the land bank might not be able to match last year’s $4.96 million in grant dollars.
“That was a lot to be awarded,” he said.
‘The bread and butter of land banking’
Filkins said a little-known success is returning 87 lots in Apple Valley to the tax rolls.
“For over 20 years, they hadn’t produced anything for the [Apple Valley Property Owners Association] or the county as far as taxes go and had been sitting empty. Now those all went through and sold, which is great,” Filkins said.
In addition to selling high enough to cover the back taxes, Filkins said people built houses on many of the lots, which improves the community all around.
“It’s a new home for somebody. It increases the property values of the whole community, so it helps the schools, the taxing authorities, all of that,” he said.
County Treasurer and land bank board member Connie Durbin said about 110 properties are in the pipeline to sell.
Filkins said taking abandoned or vacant properties and making them better or returning unused lots to productive use is “the bread and butter of land banking.”
Nontraditional land bank projects
However, the land bank did not confine itself to traditional projects.
“We’ve been very fortunate recently to take on Heartland Commerce Park, which is not a traditional land bank project, and Welcome Home Ohio,” Filkins said. “We’ve expanded into other things, but at the end of the day, we’re still doing the work of traditional land banking too, which I’m proud of.”
The land bank sold several properties in Heartland Commerce Park in 2025, including to Becker Mining.
When Siemens Energy announced in 2018 that it was leaving, former land bank president Jeff Harris said 15 years was the best-case scenario to return the complex to viable use.
“He said that for some communities, they sit for generations.
“So to be able to go from 2018 … where all those people lose their jobs, and now we’ve got most of the buildings sold; we have a couple of buildings left. All told, if people do what they promised, then we’re looking at $24 million in new payroll coming back there,” Filkins said.
In addition to payroll, the city benefits from water and wastewater sales. Property values increase, too, because people are investing in the properties.
Filkins acknowledged the land bank was able to accomplish what it did at the commerce park because the Ohio Revised Code grants land banks environmental protections.
“We didn’t end up needing to use them because [HCP] wasn’t as dirty a site as some people had thought, but nobody would have touched it without knowing they had some protections,” he said.
“I’m excited that we were able to use that tool to get this project done at a much faster rate than even the optimistic 15-year goal that Jeff threw out there.”
Between the Bricks
Crews dug the foundations last week for the stage and picnic table apron in the green space in Centerburg. The area, dubbed Between the Bricks, is the site of the former In Town Restaurant.
Filkins said the village applied for grant money for murals on the adjacent buildings.
“In smaller communities like Centerburg, it makes a huge impact. I can tell you firsthand, just having that green space and cleaned up, people are proud of it,” Griffith said.
The village is planning a series of events throughout the summer at the venue. Summer Saturdays kicks off June 3 at 5 p.m.
The land bank is collaborating with the City of Mount Vernon on a brownfield grant. Filkins said the land bank will use its portion to remediate dormant asbestos in Knox DD’s remodel of its New Hope Early Education Center on Upper Gilchrist Road and to remove the concrete pad at the former Dana plant in Fredericktown.
The city will use its portion for the State Route 13 realignment and possibly for demolishing the buildings at 10-20 N. Main St. and 6 E. Chestnut St.
Other ongoing land bank projects
Completed or upcoming demolition projects include the former caretaker’s house on the Knox County Fairgrounds, a Barnes Road house located behind the Centerburg Wellness Center, the interior of the Wine Stein Restaurant, and the former Interchurch Social Services building in Centerburg.
Pre-approval letters are coming in for conventional financing for buyers of the Habitat for Humanity Knox County and Schlabach homes in South Vernon. Filkins anticipates closing on some of the homes in the next 30 to 35 days.
The land bank changed from using USDA loans to conventional financing because the federal government has dragged its feet approving paperwork.
Because the home buyers will pay a higher interest with conventional financing, the land bank will reduce its sale price.
The land bank received an occupancy certificate for the office suite at 103 S. Gay St.
The property owners association at Heartland Commerce Park contracted with Knox Foodies to bring a food truck to the plaza.
