City’s Takeover Plan Upsets Business Owner
http://www.post-trib.com/news/679534,ptgbuilding.article
December 4, 2007
PORTAGE — City officials have been open about their desire to purchase the Dollar General building on Central Avenue for the ongoing downtown project.
But owner Randy Weiss says he’s the one person the city has not approached and accuses the city of hurting his business by continuing to insinuate officials are going to tear down the building.
“They have ensured my vacancy remains vacant so they can control the price,” Weiss said.
The issue centers on the building, located just east of where the new Ivy Tech Community College and downtown will be built.
Weiss said he found out a few years ago about the city’s plans to tear it down. He had originally approached officials about moving some of the Portage mall tenants to his building, which Weiss says the city initially favored.
But he then received a call telling him otherwise, that the city would not give him grants to do so because it was going to take his building.
Since then, he has not heard a word from the city, Weiss said, or an offer for his building. The only time he hears about it is when he reads newspaper articles quoting city officials on their plan to tear it down.
“If this was in the private sector, it would never be tolerated,” he said.
Weiss filed an inverse condemnation lawsuit against the city about two years ago, meaning he claims the city has taken action that prevents him from using his property and thus the city should pay fair price for the property.
Mayor Doug Olson would not comment on the issue, citing the lawsuit.
However, city officials have publicly talked about it, as recently as the Portage Redevelopment Commission meeting on Wednesday. They announced plans to use a bond to buy and demolish the building and move the building’s only tenant, Dollar General, to another location.
Weiss said that because the city has made it so well known it plans on tearing the building down, no one wants to rent or buy the building from him.
“It’s obvious that everything (in Portage) has expanded, and they’ve placed a cloud over my property because they want it,” he said.
The building is for sale, but Weiss said the price is lower than it would be if he had more tenants.
Bruce Berner, Valparaiso University law professor, said he doesn’t know if the city saying it wants to buy the property constitutes inverse condemnation.
That’s usually found, for example, if a city creates an ordinance banning any construction on a set piece of land.
“You make it sort of impossible to use it,” he said.
However, tenants shouldn’t be concerned about eminent domain because any new owner would have to respect the length of their leases, Berner said.
Weiss says he is willing to sell the building to the city. But as of now, he’s being ignored.
“I feel like the elephant in the room that nobody wants to acknowledge exists,” he said.