NorthJersey.com reports an interesting settlement of an eminent domain case in North New Jersey. A township offered $310,000 to the Veterans of Foreign Wars for its building. The case settled for $375,000 after the township filed an eminent domain action. That’s a 20% bump and as such no big deal as compared with some of our other Lowball Watch items. But the joker here is that the township issued bonds in the amount of $475,000 for this acquisition, and a local church had offered $649,000 for this property. All we know in this case is what we read in the newspaper, and the newspaper story is strange. Why would the VFW settle for $375,000 when it had an $649,000 offer and the county implicitly conceded that it might have to pay as much as $475,000?
For the story go to NorthJersey.com, Jason Braff, Township Closing In on VFW Property, May 3, 2011.