Nonprofit Hartford Land Bank Revives Another Home In City’s North End

by Hudson Kamphausen CTNewsJunkie

HARTFORD, CT – Mayor Arunan Arulampalam wants to empower and build up city residents who are investing in the future of the city, he said Tuesday morning at a ribbon cutting for another property renewed by the Hartford Land Bank. 
The property, a three-family home at 297 Enfield Street in the city’s north end, was in disrepair before it was given to the Hartford Land Bank (HLB) as part of a memorandum of understanding between the city and the nonprofit.
Arulampalam, who previously served as CEO of the HLB, said that grant money from the state Department of Housing has been critical in helping the city acquire properties that have been foreclosed on to help the land bank improve the city’s neighborhoods. 

“If we can invest in the folks who already care about and know communities like this, there is so much that we can do right in this city,” he said.
Part of that investment is in breaking the cycle typically followed by foreclosed properties.
Foreclosed and dilapidated properties that are determined to be of use for the land bank are voted on by the city council, and the title is then transferred to the land bank. The organization then seeks developers who are city residents and sells the property to them to be restored. The HLB, the mayor said, takes a loss on most of the properties it takes over.

Marcus Ordoñez, interim director of HLB, said that the property at 279 Enfield Street is now modernized and ready for new tenants. 
Arulampalam said that the organization focuses on developers who are minorities and residents of Hartford, as a means of protecting the interests of the city and its residents.
“The folks that are developing land bank properties are folks that are from these neighborhoods, who care about this city, who don’t want to see these properties go to the highest bidder,” the mayor said.

The main developer for 279 Enfield Street is Tex Sampson, a resident and businessman in the north end. The property is his second project with the land bank, having previously renovated a building on Earle Street. The project on Enfield took him and his partner, Damian Turner, about eight months to complete.
Sampson – one of the first developers to work with the land bank – said he shares the mayor’s perspective about investing and building up communities in Hartford.
“That’s exactly how we see it,” he said. 

The mayor said that the protections vary on restored properties being sold to large, out-of-state corporations to then be rented back at increased prices, and that when developers use their own funds for the renovations, the city doesn’t want to “tie their hands.”
However, he said that if the HLB gives funds to the developer, then there are more restrictions in place regarding what the developers can do post-restoration. Notably, the land bank can file a claim to the title of the property and regain full control if the developer is sitting on it. 
“The process of selecting local developers is intended inherently to prevent that,” he said.

Arulampalam said that it’s in the best interest of owners and developers to act in good faith with their properties.
Sampson’s team cleaned out the home’s interior, replaced the siding and dilapidated front porches, installed new framing, patched and restored flooring, installed new bathrooms and kitchens, and completely updated the electrical, plumbing, and heating systems. It is now a modernized three-family home ready for new tenants as soon as July 1.

This former Hartford Land Bank property at 297 Enfield Street – a circa 1925 wood-frame three-family home in Hartford’s Northeast neighborhood – was restored over the past eight months by Hartford-based developers Tex Sampson and Damian Turner. (Photos courtesy of the Hartford Land Bank)