835 Bank St., West End

Address: 835 Bank St., West End

Year Built: 1845

Owner: Miami Purchase Preservation Fund

Property Value: $13,900

Comments: The Miami Purchase Preservation just cleaned up the lot on this building, according to Richard Hubbell, inspector with the city of Cincinnati Department of Buildings and Inspections.

“They’ll get right on it,” Hubbell says. “It might take a year or two, but as soon as the funding comes through, they’ll get it rehabbed.”

Miami Purchase recently barricaded the building. Hubbell cited a previous owner but says he hasn’t cited Miami Purchase. Hubbell issued orders in August and the group has made an effort to comply.

“Once they’ve worked on a building, they make it right,” Hubbell says.

Mark Lenear, executive director of the Miami Purchase Preservation Fund, says the group bought the building from the Cincinnati Metropolitan Housing Authority.

“We have a whole plan for the Bank Street area,” he says.

The plan is to have a mix of affordable and market rate housing. Lenear says the building at 835 Bank will probably be market rate.

The group has sold houses to low-income, moderate-income and market rate buyers and also rents market rate and affordable housing.

Miami Purchase Preservation Fund has rehabbed well over 100 houses in the West End, according to Lenear.

“Once we get the funding, it normally takes anywhere from six to eight months,” he says.

Lenear, who has a master’s degree in community planning, says the group works with architects and contractors and completely renovates houses.

“The whole floor plan gets changed around,” he says. “We just don’t come in and slap some paint around and say we’ve rehabbed a house.”

Lenear says the group has already spent more than $3,000 cleaning up the lot at 835 Bank.

“We do kind of work from what I consider to be the worst of the worst,” Lenear says. “We believe that’s how you recapture the neighborhood.”

This article appears in Oct 16-22, 2002.