Real Estate & Property Law

"Free"port

By Alan Ackerman

The Facts

The Economic Development Corp. and City Council will have a joint meeting to discuss all the issues and delays that surround the Freeport marina project.

At a meeting Thursday, corporation members approved a request by Mayor Larry McDonald to come together at 6 p.m. Jan. 20 and offer information about the project’s legal pitfalls and expected final price tag.

“I wanted to air out all the troubles that they’ve had and get everything back on page one,” McDonald said of the corporation. “I want the public to know what faults that they’ve found in the project.”

McDonald said the project’s tab could be significantly more than its original budget of $6.8 million, but he declined to elaborate. Corporation President Dan Tarver estimated a cost of $7.75 million.

Officials began discussing the marina project almost a decade ago with the idea it would help jump-start a revitalization in the port city. But since then, people in town have debated its need. The marina survived six years of political power struggles and court battles. Many opposed the city’s attempted use of eminent domain to secure dockfront property for the marina.

The last eminent domain battle against the city is with Freeport-based companies Western Seafood and Western Shellfish. Attorneys for those companies, owned by the Gore family, discussed a settlement with corporation officials during closed session Thursday.

Though both parties declined to elaborate on the discussions, Tarver was positive a settlement could be reached at the corporation’s next meeting.

“We think we’ve got a settlement,” Tarver said. “We think we’re on the verge on signing off on dropping everything with Western Seafood.”

Help! If this settles, making fun of the Gores will cease. Freeport truly lacked the first syllable of its name "free" in the whole transaction.

Full post as published by National Eminent Domain Blog on January 14, 2009 (boomark / email).