Tioga County Land Bank may manage apartments in-house

By Matt Freeze —

OWEGO — After struggling for a few months to find a property manager, the Tioga County Property Development Corporation, or land bank, is seriously looking at managing the completed renovation project at 81 North Ave.

The $905,000 renovation of the historic building was completed in October after a long process transforming it from a dilapidated building into a commercial ground floor with two-bedroom, one-bath apartments on the second and third floors.

Each unit has a washer and dryer, back porches, and historic windows looking out over North Avenue.

“The only thing holding us up at this point from getting tenants into those units is the lack of having property management,” Land Bank Executive Director Sara Zubalsky-Peer said.

“I know it’s not ideal for us to do it in-house,” she said. “However, we both feel confident putting this together as an outline, and then sending you all a package — very detailed — phone call service that we would use, software that we would like to use, and saying here’s what the cost would be and who would be responsible for what.”

Zubalsky-Peer said that through all the conversations they’ve had on the matter, it keeps coming back to in-house management being the best fit for the time being.

She also said she understands that it would effectively make her an on-call employee, but the land bank would use an answering service to screen the calls, with non-emergency calls generating a report in the morning.

“If it’s a true emergency, then they would contact me, and I would reach out and contact somebody to handle the emergency situation,” Zubalsky-Peer said.

Further, she said they’ve been looking at various draft policies, which are being reviewed by attorneys before board approval.

“It’s interesting because some other land banks are now moving in this direction as well,” she said.

Zubalsky-Peer said they could always sell the building outright, but the point of the project has been to serve as a funding stream: in case future state funding is reduced, they would still be able to generate funds to continue rehabilitation projects.

Additionally, she said she didn’t anticipate an issue with getting tenants, as some people have already reached out looking to rent.

“Maybe a year from now, we’ll say this is not working out,” Zubalsky-Peer said.

Zubalsky-Peer previously said the apartments would be market-rate.

(Matt Freeze is a Senior Staff Writer for The Morning Times.)