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Eminent domain ruling favors Asbury Park, N.J., property ownerJul 27, 2009 (Asbury Park Press - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- The owners of a gutted Second Avenue beachfront apartment building have received a $2,024,000 eminent domain jury award, the third in recent months seen as favorable to beachfront owners after earlier verdicts favored the city and beachfront developer Asbury Partners. Paul Fernicola, the attorney for Jersey Urban Renewal partners Vincent Gifford, Richard DePetro and Marshall Sigman, said a jury in Superior Court Judge John R. Tassini's courtroom made the award last Thursday. Asbury Partners, which came in to rebuild the waterfront in 2001, and the city, which holds the power of eminent domain, had made a final appraisal offer of $500,000 for the 212 Second Ave. property constructed in 1924. The owners used two appraisals in court. One was for $2,476,000, based mostly on 20 nonbinding contracts for condominium units they wanted to place in the building. The second appraisal, which the jury ended up awarding, was $2,024,000 based on sales of five other buildings in the city. "This is the third verdict since May demonstrating that the appraisal by the city and its redeveloper Asbury Partners did not represent the property's fair market value," Fernicola said in a press release. Larry Fishman, chief operating officer of Asbury Partners, could not be reached for comment Monday. Asbury Partners has said it plans to appeal the two earlier jury awards: $1,544,000 for owner Vincent Alvino's Second Avenue property that most recently housed Jimi's bar next to The Stone Pony, and $850,000 for a neighboring vacant site owned by D&M Realty at the corner of Second Avenue and Kingsley Street. Fernicola said the appraisals were "artificially low based on an argument by the city that there would have been no residential development in its oceanfront if there was no redevelopment project." He said the property owners argued there had been no new residential development on the oceanfront since 1984 because of the "cloud of condemnation on the properties" from the redevelopment designation at that time by the city. The last three eminent domain awards came after three earlier verdicts, including one for the Flamingo Motel, that were more favorable to the city. Jersey Urban Renewal itself had lost an earlier court fight against the city's redevelopment plan, contending the property owners should not have to reach a financial agreement with master developer Asbury Partners before renovating its own properties. That agreement required the property owners to pay a negotiated amount to Asbury Partners, much of which was designated to help fund an estimated $50 million price tag for new roads, storm drains and telephone, electric, cable and sewer lines on the waterfront. Fernicola said Jersey Urban Renewal had a budget of $750,000 to renovate the property and could not afford the $1.7 million it would have had to pay Asbury Partners to be the developer of the property. To see more of the Asbury Park Press, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.app.com Copyright (c) 2009, Asbury Park Press, N.J. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA. |