Navigation

Author Archive | Michael Rikon

May 2, 2023

Valuing the Special Purpose Property

          On occasion, one will encounter a property which is so unusual that it cannot be valued by the comparable sales (or market data approach) or by capitalization of income.  When that happens, the cost approach will be utilized.           In the cost approach, an appraiser values the property premised on the value of the land and then adds what it would cost to build a new structure.  The value is based on reproduction costs less observed depreciation.  All increment costs are also considered and added to the value.  The… read more

By
Posted in Condemnation, Cost Approach, Special Purpose
Read more > 0

April 11, 2023

Condemnation to Build Slave Quarters

Gwinnett County, located in the North Central portion of Georgia and part of the metropolitan area of Atlanta, has backed down from the proposed condemnation of the “Promised Land” from a Black family. The Promised Land community was a plantation with about two dozen slaves prior to the Civil War. The land is owned by the descendants of freed slaves who once worked on a plantation on the same property. It was then owned by Thomas Maguire. “During the Civil War, Sherman’s troops burned this whole town, but he didn’t… read more

By
Posted in Black Ownership, Condemnation, Historical Park
Read more > 0

April 6, 2023

Lowballing African-American Farmers in a $5.6 Billion Project

A largely rural African-American farming region in western Tennessee is subject to condemnations for a series of road connections and widenings that will link a 4,100-acre Blue Oval Ford campus to a new Exit 39 off of I-40 to accommodate throngs of workers and truck traffic.  Ford Motor Company broke ground on its future $5.6 billion electric truck plant a year ago. The state is seeking 35 separate tracts of land by purchase or eminent domain.  Thus far the state has taken possession of 15 tracts.  The path of the… read more

By
Posted in Eminent Domain, Just Compensation, Lowball Offers
Read more > 0

April 4, 2023

Getting The Shaft

Daniel F. Sciannameo, MAI, one of New York City’s best appraisers and a Staten Island resident, brought an article published in the Staten Island Advance to my attention.  The article states that Staten Island residents have had to pay what amounted to a monthly tax to New York City for a subway line that was never built. The article written by Tom Wrobleski provides the history of the train line.  He wrote, “As originally conceived in the 1920s, the train line would have run from St. George to Mariners Harbor,… read more

By
Posted in Abandonment of Project, Condemnation, Staten Island Subway
Read more > 0

March 30, 2023

Opposition to the Summit Pipeline

In our last blog, “We Don’t Care What the Stinking Pipeline Carries,” March 21, 2023, we reported on the Summit Pipeline which would carry millions of tons of carbon dioxide from ethanol plants to be injected into underground rock formations.  The 2,000-mile pipeline would carry carbon dioxide across five states to underground storage in North Dakota. There has been a lot of opposition to the project from property owners and other groups.  Farmers have concerns about what the gas will do to the soil and water.  Another concern is that… read more

By
Posted in Carbon Dioxide Pipeline, Condemnation, Summit Pipeline
Read more > 0