Trial to decide price of Dillard’s property
“A judge on Friday ruled that a trial will determine the price the city of Longmont must pay Dillard’s Inc. for its department store at the Twin Peaks Mall in Longmont.
Judge D.D. Mallard said the trial could be anytime between Sept. 16 and March of next year as part of the eminent-domain case filed by Longmont officials against Dillard’s Inc. (NYSE: DDS). Dillard’s attorneys had requested that a jury decide the compensation price for the 94,000-square-foot building and seven acres of land. A judge, a three-person commission, or a jury of landowners can decide the compensation amount in an eminent-domain case, by Colorado law.
Eminent domain is the right of a public authority to take property from a private landowner after making appropriate compensation.
Longmont’s elected officials, acting as the Longmont Urban Renewal Authority, filed the case in May in connection with a planned $80 million shopping center redevelopment at Twin Peaks Mall on behalf of mall owner NewMark Merrill Mountain State, who was unable to negotiate a deal with Dillard’s. Dillard’s owns the building it occupies and holds veto rights to any redevelopment plans at the mall.”
Potter, Beth. Boulder County Business Report 5 August 2013.