Philly Land Bank brokers deal with Sheriff’s Office to resume land purchases

Philadelphia’s Land Bank may soon be able to actually buy land once again.

For years, the quasi-governmental agency has been unable to perform one of its core functions — acquiring tax-delinquent lots from sheriff sale for redevelopment. First, sales were suspended due to COVID-19; then came an opaque dispute involving the Land Bank, Sheriff Rochelle Bilal, and a private company she contracted to hold online auctions.

Less than two weeks after an Inquirer report on those issues, the Land Bank convened an unusual Saturday meeting where officials unveiled a one-year memorandum of understanding they said would resolve the long-standing dispute.

The MOU, which broadly outlines how the private company and the Land Bank will cooperate on land sales, passed unanimously.

“It was in everyone’s interest. … We had been negotiating this for some time and we wanted it done,” said Land Bank director Angel Rodriguez, explaining the convening of an emergency session. “And I think [Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s administration] wished for this to be executed.”

During hearings last fall, officials indicated the obstacle was related to Bid4Assets — the online auction company contracted by the sheriff to hold tax sales — recognizing the Land Bank’s ability to exercise a “priority bid” power to preempt bidding wars with private buyers, as well as its exemption from certain fees.

The MOU extensively details how the Land Bank will be able to utilize those priority bid powers, its ability to request the postponement of sales for parcels of interest, fee exemptions, and how Bid4Assets will handle the aforementioned on its online bidding platform.

The impasse has had far-reaching consequences.

The lack of purchasing power had made it impossible for the Land Bank to assemble lots for affordable housing development or to steer vacant land to community garden groups — instead of being sold off to the highest bidder — which were key goals when the agency was created more than a decade ago.

“The acquisition of properties is a central part of the mission of the Land Bank,” board chair Herb Wetzel said Saturday.

The obstruction of those purchases left numerous vacant lots eyed by the Land Bank effectively in limbo, while about $5 million in funding for land acquisition sat in escrow.

It also rankled some elected officials.

When a U.S. Supreme Court case in Minnesota imperiled the powers of agencies like the Land Bank to acquire properties, Councilmembers Jamie Gauthier and Kendra Brooks and members of Parker’s administration worked on a bill last spring to codify that ability.

Yet the roadblock with the sheriff’s office meant the legislation has had little impact thus far.

Bilal did not respond to a request for comment.

In a statement, Gauthier praised the Saturday vote and thanked Parker, Council President Kenyatta Johnson, and City Solicitor Renee Garcia for brokering the deal.

“For the first time since before the COVID-19 pandemic began, the Land Bank can now perform its crucial duty of acquiring land for community-owned and community-minded development,” she said.

Brooks also hailed the agreement.

“I’m glad to see the Land Bank moving forward on this to get our city one step closer to preserving community gardens,” she said. “Community gardeners — and all Philadelphians — deserve a clear, transparent process for determining the future of abandoned properties in our neighborhoods.”

Board members gave only general descriptions of what had caused the delays.

“This agreement is really logistical,” said board member Rebecca Lopez Kriss. “The big things were things like, ‘What are our fees? What is the process going to be? What does that look like?’”

The terms of the MOU will extend for one year, at which point the agencies will need approval from City Council for a multiyear agreement.

The MOU could mark one problem resolved for the sheriff, who has presided over a barrage of bureaucratic mishaps that have elicited calls for the office to be abolished. For instance, even after it resumed sheriff sales, the office has struggled to process deeds for winning bidders — with some facing delays of nearly a year.

Notably, the MOU agreed to Saturday contains a provision allowing the Land Bank to record deeds of sale on its own.

“Some of the terms of the MOU put control on the filing of deeds on the Land Bank staff,” Rodriguez said in response to a question about those chronic processing delays.