MANSFIELD, Ohio—Clear Fork Resort sold in three parcels on June 5 at the Richland County Sheriff’s Sale after a foreclosure suit was filed over a year ago and the resort closed its doors on May 14. The entire resort property sold for a total of $706,000 split into in three separate parcels at the sheriff’s sale public auction. One of those parcels was 16.45 acres of unused land.
Attorney Eric Miller paid $30,000 Friday for the unused property on behalf of the North Central Ohio Land Conservancy (NCOLC). Miller is a trustee for the NCOLC. The land was initially appraised at $45,000.
The North Central Ohio Land Conservancy has plans to create two public hiking trails on the property.
“The land has been beat up and timbered, there’s nothing I can do about that but when you get there, there’s a real nice view over the valley,” said Miller. Hikers will be able to travel to the 16.45 acres through a proposed new hiking path that will only be accessible by foot.
A second proposed hiking path would cross through the property that was once the Clear Fork Resort and meet up with the new trail created by Boy Scouts on Saturday. Both trails would begin at Resort Drive in Butler.
The property of the former Clear Fork Resort was purchased by Miller on behalf of his client, Cache Private Capital Diversified Fund LLC, at the sheriff’s sale. Miller said he has been in talks with Cache to donate a footpath easement for the proposed new trails, which he said they are receptive to.
“From the perspective of my client they saw this public trail as a good investment, it’s not going to harm the ski resort and it may be a property enhancer to have a public trail on their land, so they did this out of pragmatism,” said Miller.
Note: This is the second in a three-part story describing the future outlook for the resort properties.
