The Muskingum County’s land bank gives updates property projects
ZANESVILLE, Ohio – The Muskingum County Land Reutilization Corporation held its monthly meeting Thursday with updates on major projects on promising properties.
The organization, more commonly known as the land bank, has announced that Luburgh Incorporated has fully demolished the building that was once the Holiday Inn on 4546 East Pike. According to Executive Director Andy Roberts, that won’t be the only building coming down in that area.
“We just got approval from the state. We will be taking down the former Howard Johnson, which is right next door. It was in a similar state of disrepair. Not quite as bad, but it’s gone past its useful life, let’s just say. So that will be coming here real soon,” Roberts said.
Another update from the Roberts includes the property at Muskingum and Putnam Avenues. The property that once hosted an automotive shop and gas station has had two tank cavities re-excavated to remove contaminated soil. Roberts explains that there is still work to be done on the property.
“So we’ve been working that for about a year now. When we got the property, we knew there were underground storage tanks on it. We didn’t know how many,” Roberts said. “We thought there were only two cavities; there was another cavity that was buried underneath the building that we were not able to find out about. That one had tanks that were exceptionally old. They had had a release into the ground. So what we’re trying to do with that right now is figure out how to properly mitigate those petroleum-impacted soils on that property.”
Roberts hopes to complete the Putnam property project by the end of the year. The property is owned by Muskingum County Community Foundation, and according to their CEO, Brian Wagner, the MCCF will decide what the next steps are for the property after remediation is complete.
