Real Estate & Property Law

Condemnation of Land Leases

By Alan Ackerman

StlToday.com

Spirit of St. Louis Airport soon will start buying 345 acres that it uses but does not own.

The airport has received a $1.458 million federal grant for the first year of a three-year project to buy out the land owners. John Bales, the county's director of aviation, said the airport hoped to buy 100 acres this year, but the precise acreage won't be known until appraisals and negotiations are completed. Bales said that eminent domain will not be part of the process.

The purchases would start with critical parcels — those under runways, taxiways and key buildings, he said.

The county, the Federal Aviation Administration and state transportation officials agree that Spirit would avoid a financial crunch if it bought the parcels now rather than wait until leases are close to expiring, Bales said.

Haglin & Co., the private company that opened the 1,250-acre airport in 1964, obtained the ground in 1961 through 99-year leases, mainly from farmers.

The county, which bought the airport in 1980, pays a total of nearly $44,443 a year to the leaseholder

The County Council last week approved the hiring of O.R. Colan Associates of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., as a consultant to handle the purchases in all three years of the project. Colan will be paid $234,000 over the three years to take care of appraisals, title searches, land and environmental surveys and negotiations with the property owners.

The condemnation of land leases is not quite so simple. The leases were initiated when the airport desired the revenue from private parties (all to the detriment of potential competitors in the marketplace) after expropriation from private owners. Now after having the benefit of the income on land taken by eminent domain it will condemn the leases.

Full post as published by National Eminent Domain Blog on May 08, 2009 (boomark / email).