For commercial property owners whose assets lie in the path of state transportation projects, undergoing the eminent domain process doesn’t always seem like a win-win situation.

In recent months, as the N.C. Department of Transportation has paid some owners negotiated settlements and are still working to come to agreements with others, at least two transportation project areas have entered the spotlight: Military Cutoff Road north toward Market Street and Kerr Avenue.

A trial date of Sept. 28 has been set for a case between the DOT and a property owner along Kerr Avenue facing a partial land take by the department, said Stephanie Autry, one of the attorneies with Cranfill Sumner & Hartzog who represents several property owners in eminent domain cases in the area.

The ProBuild at 252 S. Kerr Ave. in Wilmington stands to lose 66 parking spaces.

“We’re only going to have about 33 or so parking spaces left, and we’ve got 40 employees,” Autry said, referring to the building supply business. “So you can see that doesn’t work very well when don’t have nearly enough parking for employees, much less customers.”

The DOT is also enclosing one of the entrances to the business. The state’s suggestion that ProBuild do away with its staging area, a critical part of the property for the loading of supplies on large trucks, isn’t plausible, the attorney said.

The department’s settlement offer to the ProBuild property owner of about $300,000 was too low, Autry said.

“We’re going to be asking the jury to award many more times that,” she said.

In June, a jury awarded four times that settlement offer – $1.2 million – to be paid by the N.C. DOT to one of the owners of a Wilmington shopping center whose property has lost ground in a road widening project at Kerr Avenue and Market Street.  Because of the project to widen those roads, center co-owner Carmine LLC lost a driveway and access point on Kerr, half of a driveway and access point on Market, a minimum of 40 parking spaces and 50 parking spaces through the five years of construction, according to an announcement from Cranfill Sumner & Hartzog (CSH Law).

The center, North 17 Plaza, was originally built in 1954, according to New Hanover County property tax records.

Carmine owns the portion of the center that faces Market Street, where tenants include Elizabeth’s Pizza, Family Dollar, an Asian market and other businesses, while the other part of the shopping center is owned by CLI Holdings, in a similar, unresolved case.

The DOT had initially offered a settlement of $263,007 to Carmine LLC, but evidence presented by CSH Law’s appraisers resulted in the jury’s verdict of $1.2 million dollars, the law firm’s news release said. With interest, the verdict will be valued at about $1.35 million.

George Autry, another CSH attorney and Stephanie Autry’s husband, also represented Carmine LLC, and the DOT was represented by the state attorney general’s office.

Cases involving several other property owners that Stephanie Autry represents in the area of the Kerr Avenue project have a court date of Oct. 26, Stephanie Autry said. Businesses on the properties include the other portion of the Market Street shopping center, a trophy store and Capt’n Bills Backyard Grill.

According to the DOT, which offers materials explaining its real estate acquisition process, a certain amount of private property must be acquired by the department to provide residents with safer and more modern transportation systems.

“When property is selected to be acquired, all other alternatives have been considered and it has been determined that the affected site is the best location for the transportation artery,” an informational item on the subject explains.

If the department can’t reach an “amicable agreement” with owners and get property through negotiated settlements, the DOT files condemnations proceedings, relying on the court system. At the point of filing, the DOT deposits the full amount of the appraised value according to appraisers hired by the DOT with the clerk of court. At that point the property transfers immediately.

In Stephanie Autry’s point of view, the DOT is going through a period of not making reasonable settlement offers.
As a response, local DOT spokesman Brian Rick said, “All properties that are impacted by a highway project are appraised by N.C. licensed appraisers who use the same methods to obtain values on private property, as well as NCDOT properties.”

The department’s materials for property owners who address the subject say DOT right-of-way agents “are trained to explain plans and advise you how a proposed highway project will affect your property. This information includes property history, accuracy of property lines, buildings as shown on the plans and property areas to make certain the property is properly appraised and evaluated.”

Ruth Nixon, whose family has had property along Market Street in the path of the extension project, said as she understands it, the DOT needs part of the property that used to be leased by The Stone Garden and a former golf course.

“I don’t know what the settlement is going to be as of yet,” Nixon said earlier this month. “We’ll see if my attorney thinks it’s a good offer.”

Stephanie Autry said even though the DOT files for condemnation, “we always try to settle with them. The only time we don’t settle is when they don’t make a reasonable offer.”

In the case of the owner of a self-storage property on Market Street in the path of the extension, the DOT has made an offer in excess of $4 million based on its own appraisal. One of the next steps for the owner, James Street of Streetsmart Storage, is to bring in his own appraiser, Stephanie Autry, who represents Street, said earlier this month. She said Street would like to maintain a self-storage business there.