Real Estate & Property Law

Is it really the highest and best use?

By Alan Ackerman

Three Village Times

It looks as though the Courtesy Hotel may finally be coming down. The hotel property will likely be sold to real estate developer Trammell Crow Residential, which will build a 150-unit rental apartment complex on the site.

The Town of Hempstead had been holding up the sale because the town supervisor and town board felt that the project was too dense for the area. However, the density of the project has been offset by the donation of an acre of land by the MTA to the town. That acre of property will remain as open space.

The Courtesy Hotel has long been a sore point for residents of West Hempstead. It has been the location of numerous arrests for violent and sexual-related crimes. Some West Hempstead community members have been lobbying the Town of Hempstead for many years to have the hotel closed.

Town officials tried unsuccessfully to close the hotel through the town's public nuisance law. However, that law didn't stand up in court. The best option, many members of the community felt, was to let the sale of the hotel property go through to Trammell Crow. The real estate developer had an agreement to purchase the hotel property and then build a 176-unit luxury rental apartment complex on the 2.7-acre site. However, Town of Hempstead officials believed the proposed 65 units per acre was too dense for the town. The Town Board eventually adopted an urban renewal plan for the area that allowed for a maximum density of 45 units per acre.

It appeared that the saga of the Courtesy Hotel would continue until the town could secure the property through eminent domain proceedings. However, recent developments that have lowered the density of the Trammell Crow proposal will now allow the sale to go forward.

The keys to the town's decision to let the sale of the hotel property and the construction of the luxury apartment building complex go forward were Trammell Crow decreasing the size of the proposed complex to 150 units and the MTA turning over a .97-acre parcel of property to the town to be used for open space. The 150 units in 3.67 acres of property amounts to 41 units per acre, which is within the density the town is willing to allow.

For Hempstead Town officials who believed the original Trammell Crow proposal was too dense, the addition of the .97-acre MTA property proved to be a necessary element.

When a new density is used on an older property, one has to wonder if the new use is truly the highest and best use of the property.

Full post as published by National Eminent Domain Blog on November 27, 2008 (boomark / email).