By PHYLLIS ZORN

Staff writer

Two entrepreneurs who have renovated houses and added three container homes in Hillsboro purchased a home from the Marion land bank and are set to start work renovating it.

City council members Monday approved a purchase agreement for a dilapidated house at 140 N. Cedar to Felix Ramirez, owner of Kansas Home Solutions.

Ramirez and his business associate, Crystal Leatherman, who owns Heartland Investment Properties, plan to do a complete rehab of the property and then use it as a rental house.

“We’ve done several houses in Hillsboro,” Ramirez said. “New plumbing, new electrical, it will be a brand-new house. If it’s structurally sound and it’s got good bones, we’ll restore it.”

Previous owners of the property, who lived out of town, began renovations. After they gutted the interior, they donated the house to the land bank.

Ramirez said he was coming near the end of work on a four-unit housing complex in Hillsboro. He expects to have it completed in about four weeks.