New Leadership At Hartford Land Bank

Marcus Ordoñez Named Executive Director Of Busy Nonprofit Land Bank

by Doug Hardy CTNewsJunkie

HARTFORD, CT – The nonprofit Hartford Land Bank’s Board of Directors announced recently that Hartford resident Marcus Ordoñez has been appointed as the bank’s executive director. 
Ordoñez had been serving as interim executive director since December 2023, when his predecessor, Arunan Arulampalam, stepped down following his victory in the city’s mayoral election.
“During his tenure as Interim Executive Director, Marcus demonstrated he has the energy, vision, and depth of knowledge to lead the land bank into its next chapter,” said Melvyn Colón, Board Chair. “The Board is confident that under his continued leadership, the Hartford Land Bank will further drive neighborhood impact and build equity and financial opportunity for local developers and homeowners.”

Arulampalam also gave Ordoñez a vote of confidence in his role leading the Hartford Land Bank with its mission of rehabilitating distressed properties in the city.
“Having served as CEO of the Hartford Land Bank myself, I know the deep level of commitment and dedication to our community that it takes to do the job,” the new mayor said. “The Land Bank is fortunate to be under the capable leadership of Marcus Ordoñez, and I congratulate him.”
Arulampalam said Ordoñez was a member of the Land Bank’s very first Developers Cohort.

“His commitment to the community and the city is the ideal fit for the Hartford Land Bank’s goals of stewarding distressed properties back into productive use and building generational wealth through neighborhood development,” Arulampalam said.
Ordoñez also co-chairs the Frog Hollow NRZ (Neighborhood Revitalization Zone) and serves on the board of The Betty Knox Foundation. He consulted for the land bank during its first round of property acquisition.
The Hartford Land Bank’s executive director manages the organization and plans and implements programs to efficiently advance HLB’s mission.

In an email interview, Ordoñez said thus far the Hartford Land Bank has sold 10 buildings containing a total of 30 units of housing to various developers who have then completed renovations.
It’s not clear how many abandoned and distressed properties there are in Hartford but the Land Bank is busy, according Ordoñez.
“We currently have two former HLB properties (potentially 10 units) being renovated by developers in process, and one developer scheduled to begin a new construction project this summer,” he said. “There are an additional three properties (six units) in the works to be sold to developers this summer. As well as a potential 3-5 vacant lots to be sold for new construction (potentially nine units of housing).”

Asked about the Hartford Land Bank’s impact, Ordoñez said part of the value is in the Land Bank’s ability to move faster than the city can in efforts to rehabilitate distressed properties. He said they are focused on multi-family units in order to increase the city’s available inventory of housing.
“As a nonprofit that was specifically created to return vacant properties to productive use, we can move properties more quickly than local government,” he said. “And because we work with professional for-profit and nonprofit developers, we are able to get these properties into the hands of competent, local developers and get dozens of properties back on the city’s tax rolls while also offering the community newly renovated units ready for tenants or homeowners.”
Ordoñez said that since the Land Bank is relatively new, it’s difficult to measure its impact thus far, but there are metrics he hopes to track in the future.

“The renovation of one blighted building can have a big impact on a block,” he said. “Not only by removing an eyesore but providing an asset that could potentially help raise property values, reduce the negative attention a blighted property can bring, and alleviate the disappointment of having blight on the block.”

Marcus Ordoñez speaks to reporters at before the ribbon cutting on the newly renovated property at at 297 Enfield Street in Hartford’s north end in June. He was interim executive director of the nonprofit Hartford Land Bank that day but has since been named the bank’s new executive director. Credit: Hudson Kamphausen / CTNewsJunkie