FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 29, 2025
NEWBURGH COMMUNITY LAND BANK SELLS MORE HOMES TO FIRST TIME HOMEBUYERS AND RECIEVES ADDITIONAL $2 MILLION TO SUPPORT RENOVATIONS
Administered by NY State Housing and Community Renewal
New Funding Allows NCLB To Expand Home Ownership and Affordable Rentals in Target Neighborhood
NEWBURGH – Over the past 18 months, the Newburgh Community Land Bank (NCLB) has invested $1.8 Million in vacant and abandoned property on and around Lander St, as part of its first round of Land Bank Initiative Funding (LBI) through NY State. This is addition to the nearly $3 Million in funding from the State’s Legacy City Access Program used to fully rehab 4 long vacant homes into affordable homeownership. All four homes were renovated and sold to local first-time homebuyers over the past few months, with the final 2 sales of 136 Lander and 39 S. Miller taking place on April 23 in back-to-back closings. The other two homes, 59 and 63 Lander were sold in November and December of 2024. All four homes include rental units to assist the buyers with costs, bringing a total of 11 housing units into the neighborhood. LBI funds were used to prepare other properties in the land bank’s ownership for full rehabs in future homeownership and affordable rental projects in the neighborhood and to assist Habitat for Humanity with some of their remediation costs for buildings they are renovating on Third St.
NCLB was awarded another $2 Million in funding from the Land Bank Initiative to continue addressing long vacant properties and lots in the downtown neighborhood north of Broadway. Some of these funds will be used to purchase more property from the City of Newburgh. While in the past, the land bank was able to acquire properties for the nominal rate of $1, changes in the law now require them to purchase properties the City received in tax foreclosure for the assessed value. The City Council recently approved the sale of 9 properties to the Newburgh Community Land Bank, for a total purchase price $506,500, based on 2024 assessed values. 6 of the 9 properties are vacant lots.
Since 2012, the Newburgh Community Land Bank has acquired 125 properties and brought 118 of them back to productive use, transforming entire blocks that were once emblematic of the disinvestment and neglect seen throughout the city in recent decades. Through its own rehab work and that of its nonprofit partners, such as RUPCO and Habitat, as well as through private developers and individual homebuyers, the land bank has generated almost 300 units of housing, the majority of which are designated as affordable, and has improved the quality of life in the surrounding area. Working in the 2nd largest historic district in the state comes with its challenges, such as the cost of restoring the buildings to the exacting standards of the City’s Architectural Review Commission and remediating lead and asbestos contamination. However, restoring the original details of the buildings in this architecturally rich city has a value of its own. In this time of rising housing prices and insufficient inventory, the land bank has been able to utilize its unique tools and resources to transform deteriorated properties, which have been too costly to restore on the open market, into affordable housing options.
NCLB has also brought together a winning team of professionals, such as Jeff Wilkinson, a seasoned and well-respected Newburgh architect and Carlos Carbonero, a master builder who has served as general contractor and co-developer for the homeownership projects. Both have a passion for historic restoration that is evident in the completed renovations. NCLB will continue its work on Lander St and beyond with another round of LBI funding this year. Current projects include more renovations of townhomes for affordable homeownership, new infill construction across 5 lots on Lander and the renovation of 3 other buildings on Lander into affordable rentals.
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Year in Review 2024
Click image below to see full report of our accomplishments this past year
39 S. Miller was fully renovated along with 3 other homes in our House to Home Program for first time homebuyers
October 2024 Updates
Click on the image below for our latest newsletter and list of October events such as our
Upcoming Walking Tour on Lander St as part of ARCHtober 2024
We will continue our revitalization of Lander St as we start planning for the renovation of 72-76-78 Lander St. In partnership with the City of Newburgh, we were awarded $1.45 Million from RESTORE NY Round 6 funding, which we will combine with other State and private sources to create affordable rental units in these long vacant buildings.
photo credit: Nadia Tarr Photography
NCLB promotes Affordable homeownership
our house to home program addresses multiple issues at OncE.
By renovating vacant and abandoned buildings and turning them into 2-3 family homes for first time homebuyers, we:
+increase homeownership rates in our target neighborhoods
+promote local ownership of the housing stock
+increase quality affordable rental options
+revitalize vacant and seriously deteriorated buildings
+improve the quality of life in the surrounding area and remove safety risks
+help purchasers develop equity and address the racial wealth gap
+ increase the tax base for the schools, City and County
+preserve historic structures in the East End Historic District
We have recently sold 6 homes to local owner occupants, currently have 4 homes under major renovation
and at least 4 more in the planning stages
For more information about House to Home and to sign up for notifications, go to our Program Page
NEWBURGH COMMUNITY LAND BANK AWARDED
$1.8 MILLION
to support AFFORDABLE HOMEOWNERSHIP AND RENTAL PROJECTs
NEWBURGH –The Newburgh Community Land Bank (NCLB) is pleased to announce the recent award by the Housing Trust Fund Corporation (HTFC) and NYS Homes and Community Renewal (HCR) of $1.8 Million. The funding was granted after a competitive application process open to all New York State Land Banks as part of the Land Bank Initiative Phase II.
According to HCR’s website, “New York’s first land banks were established after passage of the New York Land Bank Act in 2011. These nonprofit organizations partner with government entities to strengthen communities by acquiring, stabilizing, and facilitating the redevelopment of blighted and abandoned properties, returning them to productive use, and growing local property tax bases. The 2022-23 NYS Budget included $50 million to support services and expenses of Land Banks and HCR will allocate resources in two phases.”
The Land Bank Initiative is a new funding program set up to address vacant abandoned and distressed properties across the state. NCLB will be investing the monies in several projects in its North of Broadway target neighborhood, particularly on Lander Street, S. Miller and surrounding streets, where the land bank has already reactivated over 100 buildings and vacant lots.
Lisa Daily, Chair of the Newburgh Community Land Bank spoke enthusiastically about the recent award: “We at the Land Bank are excited to have been awarded this grant from the HTFC and the HCR. We have worked hard for the past ten years to stabilize and generate housing in the “NOBRO” area. This funding will afford us the opportunity to recharge our efforts to revitalize the City’s vulnerable housing stock, while adding new housing to long-dormant lots. I for one can’t wait to get started.”
As one of the first 5 land banks to form in the state in 2012, at a time when the City of Newburgh had over 700 vacant and distressed properties, NCLB celebrated its 10th anniversary last year. They were set up by the City of Newburgh and acquire most of their properties through direct sale from the City of Newburgh in bulk acquisitions once or twice a year. Their success is attributable to a multi-prong approach to address vacancy and severely deteriorated property through collaborations with individuals, private investors, and nonprofits.
Jennifer Welles, Executive Director of the land bank, explained that a lot of what land banks do is just remove some of the major barriers to redevelopment, such as taking care of the costly remediation and stabilization work required in the long vacant properties. This is even more critical to meet their mission of creating more affordable housing units. More than half of the repurposed properties in NCLB’s inventory were stabilized and remediated and then sold to Habitat for Humanity of Greater Newburgh and RUPCO, a Kingston based nonprofit affordable housing organization (130 units of housing between both organizations). Reducing the number of vacant properties in the North of Broadway neighborhood by at least a third, NCLB has created over 40 new homeowners, mostly through their partnership with Habitat and their own House to Home program. They have also worked with small private developers, such as Liberty Street Partners, which renovated 96 Broadway that includes affordable rental apartments and the popular and attractive eatery Mama Roux.
Welles expressed relief that “after a very uncertain time the last couple of years due to the global pandemic and the exhaustion of the initial source of land bank funding through the NYS Office of the Attorney General, we will be able to continue our work and complete all the projects in our pipeline over the next 18 months.” These include some of the following ambitious goals:
* Rehab 4 more homes for affordable homeownership with income producing rental units (11 units of housings)
* Acquire 5 vacant lots on Lander and plan for future owner-occupied housing (15-30+ units)
* Complete major stabilization and structural work in at least 2 long vacant homes on S. Miller and Dubois (6+ units)
* Acquire, clean-up and stabilize 3 vacant and severely deteriorated homes on Lander and engage an architect to design plans for affordable rental housing (12 units)
*Provide support to Habitat for Humanity to complete remediation work on 3 homes they will rehab for affordable homeownership on Third St. (3 homes)
* Maintain all their properties to be good neighbors and reduce dumping and other undesirable activities until future owners take over
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Click on image to open link to the full report - A Decade of Progress: Celebrating 10 Years of Land Banks in New York
celebrating
10 years
We are proud of what we have accomplished since our founding in 2012. Together with our partners, we have transformed dozens of vacant and deteriorated properties into productive community assets.
Here are some of the highlights:
• 123 properties acquired in the East End Historic District
• 113 properties activated and restored
• ~300 units of housing generated
• Over $10.6 million raised in grant funding
• Over $84 million leveraged in private and public dollars
• Over $17.8 Million in assessed value returned to tax rolls
• 85% of units have affordability requirements
• 40 owner occupants- mostly first time homebuyers
• More than 33% reduction in vacancy in target neighborhood
• Stimulated improvements & investment in the surrounding neighborhood
In addition to our building projects we also:
Incubated Downing Park Urban Farm and helped develop green space on Broadway
And developed an innovative award winning creative placemaking Artist in Vacancy program
Please consider donating to our land bank, which is a 501(c)3 nonprofit corporation, to help further our mission of improving our community for all.
