A jury awarded $1.2 million on June 11, to be paid by the N.C. Department of Transportation, 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, said Stephanie Autry, one of the attorneys with CSH Law who represents both owners.

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.

“This highway project is needed for this community, but the people who have been made to sacrifice by giving up their land need to be treated fairly. The Department of Transportation is not making reasonable settlement offers, and I think that the jury spoke to that when they awarded over five times the original offer,” said George Autry, co-chairman of the Land Condemnation & Eminent Domain Practice Group at CSH Law.