Calhoun County Land Bank Authority

The 3-year program will bring vacant properties back to life

Work follows Battle Creek City Commission approval of funding for former Land Bank properties

Several brownfield projects in Calhoun County will be cleaned up thanks to grants from the United States Environmental Protection Agency.

Blighted Albion structure should be gone by June

Calhoun County Treasurer Brian Wensauer says that the home is being sold to Executive Growth Properties LLC, which is headed up by local businessman Hans Stark.

The State Farm building at 410 East Dr. has been vacant since 2006, and efforts to find a buyer for the 7.5 acre property were unsuccessful. So earlier this year, the Calhoun County Land Bank received a $600,000 grant from the Calhoun County Treasurer for the demolition of the site.

The Michigan Association of Land Banks says that the study was carried out to determine the impact land banks have on their communities, and they looked at the organizations in Calhoun, Kalamazoo, and Benzie Counties.

The Battle Creek Police Department bomb squad will be have training exercises Tuesday, Nov. 21 at three properties that are scheduled for demolition next Spring.

Over $3.6 million has been awarded to counties and cities across Michigan to fight blight, by the Michigan State Housing Development Authority. Several of those counties are here in Southwest Michigan; the MSHDA says Thursday that the Calhoun County Land Bank Authority will receive $100,000 to demolish an abandoned commercial property in Marshall, while Kalamazoo County will receive $132,000 to de

A large scale effort to fight blight is coming to Calhoun County. The Calhoun County Land Bank Authority says that in the coming weeks, they will be working with the County, Bedford Charter Township, Emmett Charter Township, and the Cities of Battle Creek and Albion to demolish 122 blighted houses...