Indiana Landmarks has purchased the Owen Block building in Downtown Evansville.
The not-for-profit organization says it bought the 19th century rowhouse at Chestnut and Second streets from the Neuhoff family for $14,000. That covers the county and state tax liens against the building.
Indiana Landmark’s Marsh Davis says in a news release that the Owen Block was so dilapidated that his agency started raising money “not at zero, but at negative-$440,000.”
He says that's the gap that had to be filled to interest a developer.
Davis is thanking the fundraising efforts of Jesika Ellis of Evansville and supporters known as “blockheads.”
Mike Martin’s Architectural Renovators plans to renovate the historic structure and turn it into market-rate apartments.