Deal requires no condemnation — Landowners agree to sell property needed for urban renewal
“Urban renewal commissioners reached a last-minute deal with a group that owns about 190 parcels within an area targeted for urban renewal, avoiding a condemnation action in court.
City Attorney Roy Tucker said the deal includes the purchase of about 2 acres needed for a retail development project at the requested cost of $4 a square foot. It also includes the purchase of another 40 lots expected to be used for residential development at a cost of $2.80 a square foot.
The lots are being purchased from the Reynolds Group. Its principals originally offered to sell all of its holdings within the urban renewal area to the authority for $4 a square foot, or about $2.6 million.
Tucker said commissioners authorized a counter offer, which was included in a notice stating the authority’s intention to exercise its power of eminent domain. The last-minute deal leaves only two tracts that need to be acquired to secure the 10.5 acres needed to build a 102,537-square-foot retail shopping center with a separate 6,700-square-foot restaurant.
“It’s not that we cannot get an agreement on those two tracts, it’s because we cannot find all the parties,” Tucker said about the two remaining parcels. “If we can locate everybody, it looks like we will be able to move forward without having to use eminent domain — that is something you absolutely hate to exercise unless you have to.””
Smoot, D.E.. Muskogee phoenix 8 October 2014.