Brooklyn plans to demolish recently purchased Memphis Avenue home

Blighted home on Memphis Avenue in Brooklyn

Brooklyn plans to demolish a recently purchased blighted home, which is located at 11050 Memphis Ave. (John Benson, special to cleveland.com)

BROOKLYN, Ohio -- The city recently spent $35,000 to purchase an eyesore house located at 11050 Memphis Ave.

“The home in question is the very last property on the north side of Memphis Avenue before you go into Linndale,” Department of Economic Development Director Andi Udris said. “The reason we purchased it is the vacant property has been blighted, as far as we’re concerned. There are many boarded-up windows, the fence is kind of tattered.

“Two owners ago tried to redevelop the property, which doesn’t have water or sewer. So nobody can actually use the building for any viable purpose. It really doesn’t have a good potential reuse, so the plan is to demolish it," Udris said.

Previous tenants were actually using neighbor XPO Logistics’ land. Udris said the property’s potential is limited to current infrastructure on Memphis Avenue.

“The problem is, you can’t get water and sewer to that property,” Udris said. “Everybody thought because you’re on Memphis it had a sanitary sewer line, but it doesn’t. There’s only a storm sewer.

“It doesn’t make sense. It’s gone through so many owners that it was basically a cycle of finding the bigger fool (to buy the home). The city felt that this is nonsense. We’re not protecting the public here.”

While it’s cost-prohibitive to run a sewer line down Memphis Avenue for one property, Udris noted that the home in question is contiguous to six acres the city owns to the north, abutting the railroad tracks and Interstate 71.

While he doesn’t expect the city to market the property, which is intersected by Countrymans Creek, future development is possible.

“This gives us potential to do something along that development,” Udris said. “It makes sense to the standpoint it gives us direct access now from our property to Memphis Avenue.

“Currently, for us to get on the property, we have an easement to go across the railroad bridge and drive around behind our land. It may have some potential development opportunities in the future, but that would be way in the future. Right now, we basically want to acquire the land and eliminate the blight.”

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