Ohio demolition grant requests include hundreds of vacant Cleveland homes, remnants of

The Cuyahoga Land Bank, formally called the Cuyahoga County Land Reutilization Corp., requested almost $9.5 million in grants. Its applications cover more than 430 parcels, many of them on Cleveland’s East Side.

Most of the structures are single-family or two-family homes or modest apartment buildings, said Kim Kimlin, the land bank’s director of community stabilization. Dozens of the parcels are in state forfeiture, after going through tax foreclosure and failing to attract bidders at sheriff’s auctions.

Roughly 300 of the addresses are nuisance-abatement demolitions in Cleveland, where the land bank would tear down privately-owned buildings red-flagged by the city.

In 14 cases, the land bank applied on behalf of other entities, including suburban governments, the Cleveland Metroparks and CCH Development Corp., a nonprofit affiliate of the MetroHealth System. The land bank would convey grants to those sub-recipients, who would handle the demolitions.

The Summit County Land Bank is seeking $6.7 million in grants tied to 44 projects, including some notable commercial properties. That money would contribute to $9 million worth of demolition and site work, Bravo said, noting that the state’s program requires matching funds for all requests above the first $500,000 per county.

The Summit County applications include the former Babcock & Wilcox Enterprises Inc. headquarters in Barberton, a Van Buren Avenue complex owned by Solon-based developer Industrial Commercial Properties LLC.

Akron hopes to dispense with the rest of the Rubber Bowl, a storied football stadium that was partially demolished in 2018. The nearby John W. Heisman Lodge, on George Washington Boulevard, also appears on the list of demolition requests.

And the Summit County Land Bank, acting on behalf of sub-recipients in most cases, is pursuing funds to raze four schools, an old fire station in Tallmadge and a shuttered Motel 6 in Akron. Bravo said the land bank, which moved swiftly late last year to open an online portal for grant requests, still is hearing from public- and private-sector property owners who missed the deadline to apply.

“It was immensely popular,” he said of the program.

The Lorain County Land Reutilization Corp. asked for $4.4 million in grants, according to state records. The teardown targets range from an obsolete parking garage in Lorain to an old farmhouse, silo and barn in Grafton, said James Miller, the land bank’s assistant director.

In every case, the land bank would serve as an intermediary, conveying grant money to local governments and other recipients, Miller said.

In Geauga County, which has no land bank, the board of county commissioners applied for more than $4.1 million in grants. The largest ask, by far, is for demolition at the old Geauga Lake amusement park in Bainbridge. Industrial Commercial Properties is remaking the sprawling property as a master-planned, mixed-use project called the Geauga Lake District.

“If they are granted, that’s huge for them,” said Gina Hofstetter, program manager in the Geauga County’s department of community and economic development.

The Lake County Land Reutilization Corp. turned in $1.2 million worth of grant requests, including applications to clear the way for Uptown Mentor, an office-and-retail development. That project recently won tax credits through the state’s new Transformational Mixed-Use Development Program.

The state demolition grants will allow land banks to stretch their own dollars further and will help communities eliminate eyesores that depress the value of nearby real estate, said John Rogers, the Lake County land bank’s executive director.

State records show that the Stark County Land Reutilization Corp. submitted just over $1 million worth of grant requests, for structures including a onetime Kmart in North Canton and a former diner in Alliance. The Medina County Port Authority asked for $973,553 in funding. And the Portage County Land Reutilization Corp. applied for $626,263 in grants.

Kimlin, at the Cuyahoga Land Bank, said the state money will make a meaningful dent in the backlog of vacant and abandoned properties.

But a one-time program won’t obliterate decay.

“What we really need is more of an ongoing funding source from the state, a year-by-year allocation, because there’s always going to be some level of blight,” she said. “And we still have a tremendous level of legacy blight across the state.”