Real Estate & Property Law

Delaware Chrysler Site Purchased

By Alan Ackerman

Delaware Online

The University of Delaware signed an agreement Friday with Chrysler to purchase the 272-acre site of the company's shuttered Newark assembly plant for the bargain price of $24.25 million.
    
The university was able to get the property for a little more than half of its estimated value of $43 million by agreeing to accept liability for any environmental cleanup that might be needed.
Court papers detailing the potential sale -- which still has to be approved by a New York bankruptcy judge -- indicate UD is buying the property "as is."

Delaware made the deal of a lifetime for its State in purchasing the Chrysler Newark site. This will bring the University of Delaware up three steps.  First, it obtained the parcel for far less than its own appraisal.  However, it now has to be troubled by the environmental cleanup.  One must recognize that cleanups, as they are now propounded amongst jurisdictions, do not necessarily cost what they did only a few years ago.  This is because the property can likely be capped, and if not capped, federal and state funds will be used through brownfield rehabilitation.  This project is a key project for the development of the whole State of Delaware. At the same time, Chrysler will not be mired in bankruptcy litigation and potential state litigation for years to come.
 

Full post as published by National Eminent Domain Blog on November 10, 2009 (boomark / email).