Nashville landowner prevails in eminent domain battle against city
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By Chris Butler | Tennessee Watchdog
NASHVILLE — Nashville must make up for the fair market value for the $ 15 million a private developer said it lost when city officials used eminent domain laws to take its land to build the Music City Convention Center.
The Tennessee Supreme Court has declined to hear an appeal from the city’s Metropolitan Development and Housing Agency. MDHA had appealed a series of rulings that began when a Nashville jury found in 2011 that the city shortchanged Tower Investments for five-and-a-half acres of land downtown.
That means taxpayers will ultimately pay more for the $ 500 million convention center than city officials promised.
EMINENT DOMAIN: A Nashville developer is the ultimate winner in an eminent domain fight against city officials.
Tower Investments vice president John Pierce said that by fighting to the end, which cost the company millions of dollars, Tower accomplished something many other landowners cannot afford to do.
“If you just have a parcel of land or a small business or a farm and all of a sudden the government comes in and you are subject to condemnation you are looking at putting out hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not millions, in legal costs that you will not be reimbursed for,” Pierce said.
“Not a lot of people can do that. That is the saddest thing to me about it. I look at it from the standpoint that we are fighting for citizens’ rights to get fair market value for their property, and a lot of people aren’t able to make that fight.”
MDHA spokeswoman Holly McCall said the agency is now prepared to move on.
“We still feel we had a strong case, given the amount Tower paid for the property and the 100 percent increase in value they asked for. But we respect the court’s decision.”
As Tennessee Watchdog previously reported, Tower officials have always said the MDHA’s original offer of $ 14.8 million was well below fair market value. They also said it wasn’t enough compensation for the loss of land in what has become one of Nashville’s most desirable real estate properties.
The 2011 jury said fair market value for the land was $ 30.3 million.
Contact Christopher Butler at chris@tennesseewatchdog.org.
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