The county already owns most of the land. However, about 40 remaining landowners have yet to turn over about 300 acres for the project. Some are in negotiation with the county. Others, however, were served with condemnation papers for their land. A few aren't budging yet, according to attorney's representing the owners.
Jerome Pesick says he represents four of the landowners being sued. Two of them have agreed to take the price offered by the county, while the other two are opposed to the taking, he adds. He declined to name the asking price for the land, or the owners.
"It's very questionable that this land will be used for the public," he tells GlobeSt.com. "According to law, eminent domain can only be claimed when there's a compelling public purpose. The beneficiary is really going to be those private developers that are given contracts to develop the land by the county."
Basically, the county is assembling the land to resell to the private sector. Pesick says it may be in his clients' best interest to just deal with a developer directly, instead of having to go through the county.
"Why should the county be in competition with developers?" Pesick asks.
Pesick most recently represented landowners in the Detroit riverfront area, whose holdout was blamed for destroying the $2-billion, three-casino deal along the Detroit River. Detroit Mayor Dennis Archer, also tasked with assembling the land for the river project, says the holdouts forced the city to scale back the project to include only one new casino for MGM Grand.
The Aeropark land is located just south of Wayne County's Detroit Metropolitan Airport. Two years ago, the Pinnacle Aeropark project was to be developed by one developer. Two strong local developers, the late Heinz Prechter of Heritage Development and Schostak Bros. both made strong proposals to earn the development rights.
The county tried to get the two developers to come together for a joint development, but the deal didn't happen. Thus, the county decided to handle the selling of land and development on its own.
This park seeks to create a state-of-the-art real estate development that builds on and complements airport investment. The vision is to transform approximately 1,200 acres of underutilized, county-owned land in the airport area into a high-quality, mixed-business/technology park, with accompanying hotels, retail shopping centers, and other amenities, including a golf course.
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