DAYTON — Montgomery County will tear down roughly 151 vacant and blighted properties with help from a $5.3 million state award announced this week, a new round of demolition money aimed at some of the Dayton area’s most troubled blocks.
The funding comes through Ohio’s Building Demolition and Site Revitalization Program and goes to the Montgomery County Land Bank. Combined with local matching dollars worth about 25 percent of project costs, the award is expected to clear about 103 properties in Dayton, 35 in Trotwood, eight in Riverside, and a handful more in Harrison Township, Moraine and West Carrollton.
Most of the buildings on the list are vacant homes, many of them abandoned by their owners and already flagged on local nuisance lists. Land Bank Executive Director Paul Bradley says the visible payoff matters: removing structures that cannot realistically be rehabilitated is one of the clearest improvements a neighborhood can see, and cleared lots can later become infill housing, side yards or pocket parks.
Not every property is a house. Officials say the list also includes some larger commercial buildings, and those teardowns can run into six figures each. The average cost of demolishing a home has climbed to nearly $20,000, the land bank says, and asbestos removal or larger multi-family buildings can push the bill well beyond that.
Dayton is expected to receive about $4 million of the county’s award. Steve Gondol, the city’s director of planning, neighborhoods and development, says the money will finally fund a considerable share of the structural nuisance properties the city had identified but could not afford to address. Many of Dayton’s listed addresses cluster in West Dayton, including streets near Greenwich Village and Residence Park.
The new award builds on earlier rounds. In the past couple of years the same state program has sent the local land bank more than $11 million, which — with local matching funds — is expected to demolish and remediate about 260 properties across the county, primarily in Dayton. The city has separately committed about $22 million toward removing more than 1,000 nuisance properties.
Neighboring counties are getting demolition money in this round, too. Miami County will receive about $1.75 million for 10 sites, a list that appears to include the former Piqua Red Roof Inn near Interstate 75 and U.S. 36 and the old YMCA address on West High Street in Piqua. Greene County will receive about $330,000 to raze six sites, including the vacant Xenia Ramada Inn, where a new market district is planned.
Statewide, Ohio has now awarded more than $270 million through the demolition and revitalization program to help clear more than 5,000 properties. Montgomery County officials say they hope to wrap up demolition work funded by the earlier state grants next year, even as this new round moves properties from nuisance lists to cleared, reusable land.
