Ask MRN: What’s going on near the corner of 18th and Koch’s Lane?

Dear MRN,

What’s going on near the corner of 18th and Koch’s Lane? The home on that corner finally got knocked down.

Documents filed in the Adams County Recorder’s office show Niemann General Contracting, Inc., of Quincy bought the 2.2-acre property at 1700 Koch’s Lane from Raven Securities, Inc., of Belleville on March 24 for $45,000.

Raven Securities originally acquired the property on February 24 at a public sale of real estate for the nonpayment of taxes.

Crews from Niemann General Contracting recently demolished the home and garages at the site, and they continue to clear trees and brush.

“The rain has been playing havoc with this muddy mess,” owner Drew Niemann said last week. “We need it to dry up a little bit. When it’s so damn muddy, it’s just hard to work and run chainsaws. It’s too dangerous. So we’ll just go to a different job that we can work on until it’s dry.”

Once the land is leveled and cleared, Niemann says he hopes to turn the area into a small subdivision.

“There’s been quite a bit of interest in it so far, but I’m just going to say it’s investment property for now,” he said. “I’m working on some different things right now. Klingner (and Associates, a local engineering firm) is designing it right now for a subdivision.

“So that’s where I’m at right now. I’ve got a few more trees to take out and some roots to take out, bulldoze it all down so it looks presentable. Then (engineer) Cullan Duke designs it and says, ‘Drew, you could do this or this.’ Then we go from there.”

The property has received plenty of attention for more than a decade.

The property previously was owned by Paul H. and Evelyn J. Pfanschmidt of Athens, Texas. Open dumping took place at the site for at least 30 years. The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency sent a letter of violation to the Pfanschmidts in 2012, but they did not respond. 

Evelyn Pfanschmidt died in September 2018. Paul Pfanschmidt also is deceased.

The property at 1700 Koch’s Lane was the only property on the south side of the street between 12th and 24th Streets that was not part of the Third Ward for several years. However, it was one of more than a dozen properties the city annexed into the city limits on June 24, 2021.

Niemann says all of the activity on the site has spurred plenty of questions from neighbors.

“A guy who lives in the Windermere subdivision (at 16th and Koch’s Lane) comes around the corner one day around quitting time, and we’re just out in the street talking,” Niemann said. “And the guy asks, ‘What are you doing with this?’ I had a little fun with him and said, ‘Oh, we’re putting in a hog confinement.’

“And the guy replies, ‘Well, that will look a lot better than what’s been there.”