Land banks spur redevelopment

I thought this article in today's Detroit News was interesting.

For those who don't know what a land bank is here is the definition:
"Land banks acquire vacant, abandoned, foreclosed and tax-reverted properties with the intention of renovating them for resale, razing old buildings to alleviate blight or simply sitting on the property until the market improves.
The idea is to prevent properties from languishing vacant and deteriorating over the years, leading to safety hazards and dragging down the values of nearby properties and government tax rolls."

Everyone should know this but in October, the state's land bank agency bought the Farwell Building in Capitol Park for $3 million.

http://www.detnews.com/article/20091...-redevelopment

While the idea is a good one, they paid too much for the Farwell bldg.

It should have been well under 1 million based on market conditions.