Dillard’s chides Longmont for ‘costly, lengthy and uncertain’ eminent domain action

“The department store chain has spent months talking with NewMark Merrill Mountain States, the mall’s owners, about what it would take to either include Dillard’s in a redeveloped Twin Peaks mall or to buy the store out. Dillard’s owns its own building and land, and holds covenants that give it veto power over many aspects of a new mall’s design.

That made an agreement with Dillard’s vital, but the negotiations failed to reach one by the April 1 deadline. On Tuesday, in hopes of keeping the mall project on schedule, the City Council voted 6-1 to begin the eminent domain process.

Dillard’s acknowledged Wednesday that negotiators had been “unable to reach an agreement to date” regarding the store’s future, but added that the city was stepping into dangerous waters.”

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Rochat, Scott. Times Call 10 April 2013.