A tip of our hat to our fellow blogger Robert Thomas of inversecondemnation.com for alerting us to this story.
In Pennsylvania, the feds took the 275-acre United Airlines Flight 93 crash site of 9/11 infamy for a monument, and paid $610,000. The owner contended that the subject property was worth “close to $23.3 million.” The federal judge presiding over this taking litigation referred the valuation case to a three-person commission which returned a verdict of $1,535,000. That, according to our calculator is 2.5 times the feds’ deposit/offer. Nonetheless the feds proclaim themselves to be happy with the commissioners’ award — which to us suggests that the feds’ original $610,000 offer/deposit may have been in something less than good faith, and that is what suggests to us that this controversy qualifies for our “Lowball Watch” department, even though the owner got a lot less than what he demanded (“closer to $23.3 million”). Go figure. Still, two-and-a-half times the condemnor’s offer ain’t hay.
To read the whole story — thin on the parties’ valuation approaches though it is — go to http://triblive.com/news/adminpage/5225204-74/site-commission-million#axzz2n5cho3O7