The Empire State Development Corporation has approved the application for a multi-county land bank submitted by the Mohawk Valley Economic Development District (MVEDD).

Land banks are independent not-for-profit corporations created to redevelop vacant, abandoned, or tax delinquent properties that have a negative effect on their communities. The primary focus of land bank operations is the acquisition of real property and to use the tools of the program to eliminate the harms and liabilities caused by these blighted properties. The New York State Land Bank Act does not permit a land bank to exercise eminent domain.

The Greater Mohawk Valley Land Bank (GMVLB) currently covers the counties of Herkimer, Montgomery, Otsego, and Schoharie, as well as the cities of Rome and Utica and is one of seven new land banks certified in the last year, bringing the total number of land banks to nineteen out of a possible twenty in the State.

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