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Muncie Land Bank reports property transfers, auction restart and county stance on collaboration
Summary
The Muncie Land Bank updated the commission on recent property transfers, conditional holdings for potential LIHTC projects, plans to restart vacant-lot auctions and a county-level rejection of a broader collaboration proposal while remaining open to property petitions.
Nate Howard of the Muncie Land Bank told the Redevelopment Commission on May 15 that the land bank approved a transfer of 11 properties tied to an old West End development and has passed a property acquired for Urban Light CDC to that nonprofit after holding and cleaning the lot while Urban Light secured funding.
Howard said the land bank is restarting its vacant-lot auction and structures-for-sale program after pausing earlier to refine accountability and improve the process. He described work to prepare about 40 properties that were acquired through tax certificates for public sale and noted significant cleanup and assessment work required on many of the structures.
Howard said the land bank submitted a proposal for countywide collaboration but that Delaware County commissioners formally rejected the proposal at a May 5 meeting; county officials remain open to processing petitions for specific properties and prioritized transfers first to the county redevelopment commission, then municipal redevelopment commissions and finally to the land bank.
Howard explained the land bank’s role as a custodian that “exists to proactively acquire and maintain property so that others … can carry out redevelopment,” and said the land bank is prepared to help the Muncie Redevelopment Commission assemble properties for tax-credit applications if requested.
No formal action was taken by the MRC on the land bank report; Howard encouraged commissioners and staff to view the land bank’s online partner resource map and a spring 2025 “ask” document that lists available properties and their tax-sale histories.
