Saskia Thompson leads an organization everyone has an opinion about. To do business with Detroit Land Bank Authority you can register for a free Periscope S2G Limited account. With few exceptions, Detroit City Council has no say in how the agency is managed and which properties are sold, demolished, or rehabbed. The City agencies that review applications consider many factors in making recommendations for the sale of property, including the following: Compounding the problem is inadequate funding for upkeep of its 88,000 properties. Detroit's auditor general hears residents' gripes about the Land Bank Authority and plans to look at its finances and bid procedures, according to Bankole Thompson of The Detroit News. The Detroit Land Bank Authority (DLBA) recently put out a request for proposals for developers, builders, or people with real estate experience to bid on home bundles. Today Is a great day to make an investment that will withstand the test of time. Contact: Detroit Land Bank Authority 500 Griswold Street Suite 1200, Detroit, MI 48226 Phone: 1-844-289-3522 Email: communityrelations@detroitlandbank.org Website: www.buildingdetroit.org DETROIT (AP) — Land deals that will allow Fiat Chrysler to build a new assembly plant in Detroit are expected to cost the city and state about $107 million. The Detroit Land Bank Authority is the largest property owner in the city, but the properties it owns are not evenly distributed. The agency is also facing criticism for using its nuisance abatement program to target homes that weren’t purchased from the Land Bank, even as it didn’t go after Gilchrist. RETAIL Motor City Match and Motor City Restore are programs run by the Detroit Economic Growth Corporation that support entrepreneurs and existing small businesses. Craig Fahle The public entity recently added its ninth employee receiving a six-figure salary – Craig Fahle , the former host of WDET’s Craig Fahle Show, who now makes $120,000 a year. Also, a lot of property wasn’t initially given to the Detroit Land Bank Authority. It then unloads these properties through a variety of channels. [1][2][3][4], Public authority in Detroit, Michigan, United States, "Detroit Land Bank Authority was formed illegally, activist says", "Detroit land bank funds at limit as inventory grows", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Detroit_Land_Bank_Authority&oldid=994083449, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 14 December 2020, at 01:06. Please also read our Privacy Notice and Terms of Use, which became effective December 20, 2019. Occasionally framed as a quasi-governmental entity, the Detroit Land Bank operates a number of programs to reduce the number of Detroit properties that are currently in public ownership. Find out what works well at Detroit Land Bank Authority from the people who know best. By choosing I Accept, you consent to our use of cookies and other tracking technologies. Get the inside scoop on jobs, salaries, top office locations, and CEO insights. Is more council oversight the answer? In 2010, the city and state created the Detroit Land Bank Authority to streamline management and sale of local governments’ vast stock of vacant structures and lots. Its “compliance program” requires those who purchase a home to occupy the property within six months, though it grants extensions. The State Land Bank Authority works to create a positive economic impact on Michigan communities by recycling land to productive use. Detroit property owners have bought up 10,000 side lots from the Detroit Land Bank Authority, marking a milestone for the blight-fighting initiative. Detroit Land Bank Authority (DLBA) and the City of Detroit marketed properties for sale – Verify with the Detroit Building Authority and/or the DLBA for the most accurate information. That’s especially the case in high-demand neighborhoods, which has led to accusations that the Land Bank is holding onto properties to sell at a higher price to developers. The property … The Land Bank says that 59 percent of its sales are to homeowners purchasing the property for personal use. The city declined comment at the time on that detail, citing the open investigation.The city's demolition program is jointly overseen by the DBA and Detroit Land Bank Authority. The Detroit Land Bank is an Equal Housing Opportunity Provider and does not discriminate in the sale, rental, and financing of housing, or in other housing-related transactions, based on race, color, national origin, religion, sex, familial status, age, height, weight, or disability Check out some of our properties under the featured properties tab, or search all our properties. The Land Bank’s portfolio may be proving too unwieldy for its 145 employees. Currently, the Land Bank owns and manages over 1,000 tax-foreclosed public properties. “We can only be successful by tackling it from multiple platforms and that’s what we’re doing,” she said. Uncover why Detroit Detroit Land Bank Authority The Detroit Land Bank Authority is auctioning off thousands of publicly owned properties through its public platform, Auction — and the bidding starts at $1,000. The Detroit Land Bank Authority (DLBA) owns and manages the publicly-owned residential property in Detroit and sells select vacant homes and residential side lots online. Lobby Hours are Monday – Friday from 9 am to 5 pm . Use this form for City of Detroit properties and Detroit Land Bank Authority properties. Those numbers are slightly better than those of standard buyers, which doesn’t speak to the Land Bank’s success rate. The Detroit Land Bank is an Equal Housing Opportunity Provider and does not discriminate in the sale, rental, and financing of housing, or in other housing-related transactions, based on race, color, national origin, religion, sex, familial status, age, height, weight, or disability New report highlights Land Bank’s massive ownership in the neighborhoods, filled with multiple decaying Land Bank homes. The Detroit Land Bank Authority is auctioning off thousands of publicly owned properties through its public platform, Auction — and the bidding starts at $1,000. Funding sources include federal grants (Hardest Hit Funds) as well as financial support from the operating budget of the City of Detroit and private philanthropic donations. Detroit Land Bank Authority. 1 DETROIT LAND BANK AUTHORITY BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING GUARDIAN BUILDING 500 Griswold St, Suite 1200 Detroit, Michigan (Belle Isle Conference Room) Tuesday, March 13, 2018 11:00 AM MINUTES PRESENT: Erica Ward Gerson But that’s left many wondering if the Land Bank is up to the task or needs to be reformed entirely. Get the inside scoop on jobs, salaries, top office locations, and CEO insights. It rehabs and sells homes for $50,000 and up, and works with Quicken Loans to pre-approve buyers for mortgages with low down-payments. Mayor Pro Tem Mary Sheffield declined an interview request from Curbed Detroit, but recently told the News that she hears “a lot of complaints, a lot of outcry about the lack of transparency, the lack of accountability with the Detroit Land Bank Authority.”, “So really, it’s how do we make the Detroit Land Bank more accountable?” Sheffield asked. Please note, the Guardian Building requires everyone entering the building to wear a mask. In addition, he was behind on taxes. Occasionally framed as a quasi-governmental entity, the Detroit Land Bank operates a number of programs to reduce the number of Detroit properties that are currently in public ownership. Saskia Thompson leads an organization everyone has an opinion about. “Or, how do we dismantle that current structure, because currently it’s not working for the average citizen?”. “Let’s put it this way: If the objective is to be as transparent as possible and have as much oversight as possible, then you put the function in a department,” he said. Prior to the formation of the Detroit Land Bank Authority (DLBA) in 2009, the Land Bank held in its inventory all Wayne County properties that were neither sold at foreclosure auction nor acquired by the state, city, or county through the right of refusal process. 18667 Waltham is in #District3's Von Steuben. That seems to be one of the chief issues: Detroiters can’t access some of the best property, and there’s little explanation as to why. Other major initiatives of the organization include demolition, community partnership, nuisance abatement, and economic development. Gilchrist had purchased the fourplex from the Land Bank for $13,500 in 2016. In 2019, the agency shifted its resources to focus on high-demand neighborhoods, but that means fewer resources are spent addressing its blighted properties in the city’s poorest areas. Thompson said the program is essential to the agency’s success and is supported by case law, and the agency is only targeting homes that it says are vacant and blighted. Land Bank director Thompson, however, “strongly rejects the notion” that it favors developers. The Land Bank is a public entity that promotes community development across Wayne County. The organization has been accused of bid-rigging, neglecting the blighted properties it owns, showing favoritism to city officials, and threatening to seize homes it doesn’t own. The Detroit Land Bank Authority is a public authority dedicated to returning Detroit’s vacant, abandoned, blighted and foreclosed property to productive use. The Detroit Land Bank Authority (DLBA) is a public authority that owns and manages approximate 100,000 parcels of property in the City of Detroit making it the city's largest landowner. An inventory team considers a number of factors, including the home’s condition and sale potential, when determining its fate. In recent years, the Land Bank also started acting as a code enforcement agency by threatening to seize blighted and vacant homes with the goal of forcing owners to bring them up to code. These properties include vacant commercial and industrial structures, vacant commercial and industrial-zoned land, and municipal properties which have been designated as surplus. There’s nothing in the Land Bank’s policies and procedures that requires it to make a property available to everyone, and Detroiters regularly complain that the Land Bank won’t sell a house or side lot that they want to purchase. We work in a coordinated manner to foster the development of property to promote and support land bank operations at the county and local levels. The Detroit Land Bank Authority’s public lobby will reopen by appointment only beginning Monday, June 8th. But the lack of clarity on that basic function and issues like the Gilchrist controversy are why some view the Land Bank as opaque. We use cookies and other tracking technologies to improve your browsing experience on our site, show personalized content and targeted ads, analyze site traffic, and understand where our audiences come from. Funding sources include federal grants (Hardest Hit Funds) as well as financial support from the operating budget of the City of Detroit and private phila… Since its creation in 2010, the quasi-public authority has continually faced criticism. Sometimes it bundles properties for sale, either to a developer with specific terms or as a package that people can bid on. No applicant shall be discriminated against on the basis of race, religion, color, age, gender, national origin, disability, or other criteria prohibited by the City, State or Federal law. Detroit Ombudsman Bruce Simpson, whose office is a city government independent oversight agency, said he hears about the latter issues “over and over and over again,” and suspects a lot of them also have to do with “a lack of communication” over properties’ availability. For its part, the Detroit Land Bank Authority in October is implementing a new set of rules for selling off vacant residential land with a greater focus on giving Detroiters access first. The Land Bank is a public entity that promotes community development across Wayne County. Since 2014, it has sold 8,000 houses, demolished over 14,000 structures, and sold over 14,500 side lots—a pace that the city applauds, but others question. The Detroit Land Bank Authority will go live on Facebook in one hour, providing you with a brief presentation and answering your questions. Garlan Gilchrist owned a blighted Detroit apartment building marked one of the campaign’s biggest scandals. Example: The Land Bank Fast Track Authority takes ownership of a property in May 2004 and sells it in July 2007. Contact: Detroit Land Bank Authority 500 Griswold Street Suite 1200, Detroit, MI 48226 Phone: 1-844-289-3522 Email: communityrelations@detroitlandbank.org Website: www.buildingdetroit.org The Land Bank argues that it would lose “unique statutory powers” that help it run more efficiently if it were rolled into a city department. For example, property owners can buy adjacent vacant lots from the Land Bank for $100. We work in a coordinated manner to foster the development of property to promote and support land bank operations at the county and local levels. That’s led to accusations that the agency is speculating and “hoarding” parcels for developers. And there are a lot of people who are not satisfied with the Land Bank—we’re not hitting that mark.”, owned a blighted Detroit apartment building. Detroit property owners have bought up 10,000 side lots from the Detroit Land Bank Authority, marking a milestone for the blight-fighting initiative. 09/04/2020 Take a look at today's Auctions! The answer: The Detroit Land Bank Authority, a quasi-public agency that’s largely self-governed and makes decisions with little public input, wasn’t holding Gilchrist’s feet to the fire. The Detroit Land Bank Authority is playing a larger role than ever in fighting blight, and that means more employees and bigger salaries. Check out some of our properties under the featured properties tab, or search all our properties. While it can repossess the property within six months if the rehab isn’t complete and the home isn’t occupied, it frequently gives extensions to those who are making progress. It’s also trying to “put staff in a buyer advocate role to make moving through compliance program a little easier, and make it easier to communicate with us about renovation progress,” she added. Two issues may delay a home from being put on the market, she said. The answer: The Detroit Land Bank Authority, a quasi-public agency that’s largely self-governed and makes decisions with little public input, wasn’t holding Gilchrist’s feet to the fire. On August 21, 2019, I closed on a fixer-upper from the Detroit Land Bank Authority for a total of approximately $2000. Others have pointed to the irony of the Land Bank spending money to force others to bring their properties up to code as tens of thousands of Land Bank properties sit rotting. The Land Bank takes control of properties that aren’t bid on and is charged with maintaining, selling, or demolishing them. In the run up to Michigan’s 2018 gubernatorial election, the revelation that now–Lt. The agency can repossess homes that aren’t renovated within six months, but that didn’t happen, nor did Gilchrist receive a blight ticket for the property’s litany of code violations. Reviews from Detroit Land Bank Authority employees about Detroit Land Bank Authority culture, salaries, benefits, work-life balance, management, job security, and more. The Land Bank is also designed to combat the rampant real estate speculation that plagues Detroit. Detroit Land Bank Authority (Detroit Land Bank Authority) is a Land Bank located in Detroit, MI United States, North America. The city’s planning and development department is also conducting planning processes in some neighborhoods, and has asked the Land Bank to freeze sales on property in those areas. The Detroit Land Bank Authority owns the property, but a spokeswoman says they were unaware of the situation until we called them about it. Homes through online auctions or the Own It Now program can be bought “as is” for as little as $1,000. The city and state’s decision to create an authority that’s at a distance from voters is partly behind the general sense that the agency isn’t accountable, Simpson said. The Detroit Land Bank Authority’s focuses on taking blighted properties and rehabbing them for residential usage. Thompson said everyone who’s working on a property and remains in communication with the Land Bank receives one—not just Gilchrist. While it manages a stock of publicly-owned properties, Detroiters regularly say the Land Bank won’t sell them homes. Ultimately, the Land Bank allowed Gilchrist to sell the property for $190,000, and questions over how the authority handled the property went unanswered. In an interview with Curbed Detroit, Land Bank director Saskia Thompson pushed back against some of the accusations, but also said the agency was effectively a “startup with no models to follow” and is “evolving.” She called for patience, saying that Detroit’s blight problem was “decades in the making” and that it left the Land Bank with an enormous volume of properties to manage. Saskia Thompson will be the new executive director of the Detroit Land Bank Authority, the largest land bank in the U.S. A native Detroiter who has worked with city administrations in Philadelphia, Charlotte and her own hometown, she will begin work in September at a public authority that now has about 135 employees and 98,000 parcels — about 10 percent of the entire city — in its inventory. DETROIT (FOX 2) - A Detroit mother who's been trying to fix her home for years is getting some final touches thanks to the Detroit Land Bank Authority … The Side Lot Program has reinvigorated vacant parcels in … The property is not exempt from 2004 property taxes unless the property was already exempt; the Authority is responsible for making sure the 2004 taxes are paid. Its mission, according to its website, is to “return the city’s blighted and vacant properties to productive use.”. Current Assets for Detroit Land Bank Authority is $47,200,000 and SWFI has 2 periods of historical assets available for CSV Export. If Detroit residents live next door to a publicly owned vacant lot, they can purchase it for $100 through the Land Bank's "Side Lot Program." Detroit Land Bank Authority 500 Griswold Street, Suite 1200 Detroit, MI, 48226 DLBA vendors receiving payments must request to have the check mailed or utilize ACH or ‘attach link to form’ options. Why is the Detroit Land Bank selling bundles of occupied homes? The situation is one in an ongoing series of controversies around the Land Bank, which owns about 25 percent, or 88,000, of Detroit’s residential properties. Detroit Land Bank Authority The Detroit Land Bank Authority is auctioning off thousands of publicly owned properties through its public platform, Auction — and the bidding starts at $1,000. Our new Neighborhood Lot program is now LIVE on buildingdetroit.org. 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