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Author Archive | Michael Rikon

September 7, 2023

Matter of Huntley Power, LLC v Town of Tonawanda, 2023 WL 3912499

The Fourth Department doesn’t have many condemnation matters before it and is shows.  Huntley Power was a proceeding brought directly in the court to review the determination made by the Town to condemn property that includes a coal-fired electric generating station and water intake structures.  The town held a public hearing on April 25, 2022 and adopted its resolution authorizing the condemnation on July 11, 2022.  But did not publish a synopsis of the “Determination and Finding.”  It was required to do so within 90 days of the public hearing. … read more

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Posted in Challenges to Determination and Findings, Condemnation, Notice, SEQRA
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August 15, 2023

Entrepreneurial Profit

In valuing any property in the course of development, one must add entrepreneurial profit.  The cost approach is used and entrepreneurial incentive is an important element of this valuation method.  It is the incentive an investor has for coordinating the construction of a new project.  Few investors would accept less than an amount necessary to account for the trouble they spent coordinating the construction of a new building. The Dictionary of Real Estate Appraisal defines entrepreneurial profit as (1) a market-derived figure that represents the amount an entrepreneur receives for… read more

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Posted in Appraisal, Condemnation, Entrepreneurial Profit, Valuation of Property in Course of Development
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August 10, 2023

Property in the Course of Development

Since the urban real property market is very dynamic, one finds many properties in the process of being developed or renovated on condemnation. Frequently an owner will be just about to begin efforts to build or in the process of same when a condemnor swoops in to take the parcel. The law is clear that property taken whilst in the process of development, the owner is entitled to recover for the added value of the owner’s efforts.  We call this “entrepreneurial profit.” As New York’s Appellate Division, Second Department stated… read more

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Posted in Condemnation, Development, Entrepreneurial, Profit, Valuation
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July 27, 2023

The Public Trust Doctrine in New York. A Park Is Not A Park Unless It’s Not.

  In 2015, New York’s highest court, the Court of Appeals, decided Matter of Glick v Harvey.[1]  The appeals court affirmed the reversal of a lower court order which enjoined New York University from beginning any construction in connection with its expansion project that would result in any alienation of three parcels of land found by the Court to be public parkland, unless and until the State Legislature authorizes the alienation of any parkland to be impacted by the project.  The decision itself provides very little factual information.  According to… read more

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Posted in Condemnation, Parkland, Public Trust Doctrine, Uncategorized
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July 25, 2023

Federal Funds Now Devoted to Help Undo the Damage to Black Neighborhoods by Urban Renewal

We have previously written how Urban Renewal brought under the Federal Housing Act of 1949 authorized cities to use the power of eminent domain to clear “blighted neighborhoods” for “higher use.”  (See “Urban Renewal, An Assault on Black Neighborhoods, New York Law Journal, February 24, 2023.) African Americans, who were 12% of the population in the US, were five times more likely to be displaced than they should have been given their numbers in the population.  In city after city, highways that were built to appease white suburban commuters, and… read more

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Posted in Blight, Eminent Domain, Urban Renewal
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