West Haven initiates eminent domain to acquire 6 properties for The Haven South project 6 properties targeted for The Haven

Dave Saldibar, 83, a life-long resident of West Haven turns to speak directly to the city’s residents, March 23, 2016, during the West Haven Redevelopment Agency’s public hearing at City Hall regarding the aquisition by purchase or eminent domain of the nine remaining properties involved in the Haven South Municipal Development Plan Project. Saldibar, a proponent of the project doesn’t agree the city of West Haven should use eminent domain. less Dave Saldibar, 83, a life-long resident of West Haven turns to speak directly to the city’s residents, March 23, 2016, during the West Haven Redevelopment Agency’s public hearing at City Hall ... more Photo: Catherine Avalone — New Haven Register Photo: Catherine Avalone — New Haven Register Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close West Haven initiates eminent domain to acquire 6 properties for The Haven South project 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

WEST HAVEN >> The city, through its Redevelopment Agency, has initiated eminent domain proceedings to acquire six properties within The Haven South project area for the first phase of the proposed The Haven upscale outlet mall.

The agency filed the six “statement of compensation” documents Tuesday, according to attorney Gary O’Connor of Pullman & Comley.

The documents were filed with the City Clerk’s office and sent to attorneys for the property owners, some of which are holdouts and some of which have unclear status that the proceedings are meant to clarify, he said.

Each of the six statements specify how much the city proposes to pay the respective properties via the eminent domain process based on the legally mandated formula of 125 percent of the average of two independent appraisals.

The figures are as follows:

• $862,500 for the Citgo station property at 60 Elm St., owned by SZS Enterprises LLC, owner of the Citgo station and mini-mart at Elm Street and First Avenue. Representatives on both sides have said that at one point the developer had offered $1.8 million.

• $236,875 for 341 First Ave., owned by Robert McGinnity, his mother, Natalie McGinnity, and his uncle, Michael Perrone.

• $225,000 for 349 First Ave., owned by Robert McGinnity.

• $450,000 for 38 Elm St. (at the corner of Elm and Water streets), owned by 38 Elm St. LLC. City officials have said that at one point the owner agreed to a settlement, but never followed through with the closing.

• $198,125 for 395 First Ave., owned by Charles Gore. O’Connor said the owner at one point had agreed to a settlement, but the mortgage holder did not respond.

• $23,750 for the FMR Grinding Wheel Corp. property at 0 Center St. O’Connor previously has said that condemnation proceedings would clarify this property’s status. FMR no longer is in business. The city and developer, The Haven Group LLC, also are listed as potentially having interests in the property.

“Unfortunately, the city has been left with no other viable choice than to initiate the use of eminent domain for the advancement of The Haven South Municipal Development Plan,” said Mayor Ed O’Brien in an emailed statement.

“Eminent domain will proceed because negotiations in good faith between the city and the property owners have concluded with no success,” O’Brien said. “Accordingly, on Aug. 30, letters were delivered to inform the remaining property owners that the city has filed statements of compensation ... to begin the eminent domain process.”

But the attorney representing the owners of three of the six properties said the city and developer The Haven Group do have choices — and those choices include leaving his clients’ properties, or at least portions of them, out of the plan.

“They told us they were going to do this, so it is not a surprise,” said Dwight Merriam of Robinson & Cole of Hartford, who represents SZS Enterprises, as well as the McGinnitys and Perrone, who own houses at 341 First Ave. and 349 First Ave.

But “we have seen nothing that demonstrates that there is any public purpose to be served by the taking of these ... properties,” said Merriam, who teaches land use law at the University of Connecticut.

“The city should not really be taking properties by the coercive force of eminent domain ... unless they can demonstrate that it is absolutely necessary to take these properties,” Merriam said.

“It seems like all West Haven wants to do is the same tragic mistake that New London did” in the landmark Kelo v. New London eminent domain case, which ultimately went to the U.S. Supreme Court, said Merriam, who co-edited a 2006 book about the case and the issues it raised, “Eminent Domain Use and Abuse: Kelo in Context.”

The high court ultimately ruled in New London’s favor, but nothing ever was built.

Natalie McGinnity and Perrone “have life estate interests” in 341 First Ave. to live there “until they die,” Merriam said. If West Haven proceeds forward with condemnation proceedings, “they’re going to have to evict the elderly,” he said.

“You have two elderly people who don’t want to move and aren’t going to move,” Merriam said. (Natalie McGinnity doesn’t live there now but reserves the right to if or when she reaches a point where she needs the additional care that her family can provide, he said.)

Both the McGinnity family and SZS owners Saed Ahmed and Sheik Hossain have offered to sell their properties and lease them back, Merriam said.

“We’re ready to deal with the city and we’re ready to deal with The Haven Group ... and figure out ways that these properties can be incorporated with this project in the long run, but in the meantime” the current owners can continue to live and work in them, he said.

Hossain and Ahmed, who have owned the Citgo station for 18 years, “want to spend the rest of their working lives harvesting the fruits of their sweat equity and hard labor,” Merriam said. They are willing to paint or decorate it “to be consistent with the project.”

“But they are not going to leave that property without a fight,” he said.

Despite the offers, “nobody seems interested in doing that,” Merriam said. “They just want to grab these properties.”

O’Brien previously had said a number of times that he did not want to go to eminent domain and would only do so as a last resort, but suggested that that’s where things have arrived here. The City Council authorized the use of eminent domain if necessary on June 10.

“Five property owners — and six properties in all — remain (to be acquired) in The Haven South project area” while “more than 50 property owners have accepted generous offers from the developers in far excess of the fair market value of their homes or businesses,” he said.

“As mayor of this great city, I acknowledge that this decision is not without controversy,” O’Brien said. “However, in the interests of the tens of thousands of West Haven residents who according to a poll conducted by the University of New Haven support this progressive economic development initiative, I can no longer stand idle and watch a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to create hundreds of jobs and generate millions of dollars in property tax revenue slip through our fingers.

“Indeed, The Haven will be a transformational project for West Haven and its proud residents, one that will positively impact the landscape of the city’s business climate, cementing its reputation as a major destination once again, in the generations ahead,” he said.

The mayor’s statement says the documents were filed in U.S. District Court in New Haven, although the documents themselves state that they were prepared for Superior Court in the Ansonia-Milford Judicial District.

The Haven developers Sheldon Gordon and Ty Miller have proposed to build the $200 million, 347,826-square-foot waterfront development project in two phases, with about 60 stores and seven restaurants in the first phase and about 100 stores if both phases ultimately are built.

Executive Vice President Matt Armstrong told the City Council March 30 that The Haven would be the only direct-waterfront, luxury retail center in the country, with 60 stores, seven restaurants and a public waterfront promenade with a 200-seat amphitheater.

It would pay $2 million in annual property tax and create more than $15 million in incremental sales tax for the state, he said.

The Haven would provide 800 full-time and 400 part-time jobs, plus 800 construction jobs using all Connecticut-based contractors, he said. The developers had spent $15 million on the project as of that date, Armstrong said.