$4.87 million settlement; Settlement far outstrips modest offerings for 2 tracts

Action: Mediation

Date: June 4, 2024

Date of incident: Aug. 31, 2022

Nature of claim: Eminent domain

Injuries alleged: Taking of two tracts of real property, consisting of about 14.88 acres

Amount: $4.87 million

Special or other damages: Severance damages to the remaining property post-condemnation.

Name of case: County of Charleston v. Otto-Lilienthal Strasse Associates, LLC, et al.

Case number: Case No. 2022-CP-10-04051

Court: Charleston County Circuit Court

Mediator: M. Dawes Cooke Jr., of Barnwell, Whaley, Patterson & Helms, Charleston

Demand: $7,840,014.58

Highest offer: $1,791,500 (prior to mediation)

Most helpful experts: Pledger M. “Jody” Bishop III, MAI, of Valbridge Property Advisors, Charleston

Attorneys: Rick Bybee and Jeff Tibbals, of Bybee & Tibbals, Mount Pleasant (for the plaintiff); Charleston County Attorneys Office, Charleston, (for the defendant)

Defendant Charleston County condemned two parcels (Tract 10 and Tract 49) totalling about 14.88 acres along Interstate 26 between U.S. 78 (University Boulevard) and Ashley Phosphate Road as part of the I-26/Palmetto Commerce Interchange Project. The tracts are in an area experiencing rapid growth and development as it progressively becomes an industrial sector for Charleston’s workforce.

Tract 10 originally was 95.5 gross acres (with 15 acres being wetlands) and was a mixed-use parcel. After the taking, the property was severed into two parcels, one being about 34 acres and the other about 31 acres, which are separated by the proposed I-26 Interchange and eastbound ramps. An access point via Weber Boulevard became no longer accessible because it would become part of the interchange with access controls imposed by the taking.

Tract 49 is a 4.56-acre utility corridor west of I-26 on Blue House Road that abuts Tract 10, providing benefits to Tract 10 as well as other parts of Ingleside.

Tract 10 is owned by Otto-Lilienthal Strasse Associates, and Tract 49 is owned by Weber USA Corp.

As these tracts are held by similar owners and are contiguous, plaintiffs’ counsel urged that they be treated as a single parcel under the “larger parcel theory.” Defendant consented to consolidate the takings cases for them.

As a direct result of the taking and a severance due to existing wetlands, about 17 acres of the now-divided property within Tracts 10 and 49 were left without a direct access point across highlands. To access the 17 acres will require extensive wetlands mitigation that was not necessary before the taking.

Defendant’s original offer of just compensation was nothing for Tract 10 as a result of claimed benefits to the remainder property from the interchange. Defendant offered $114,380 for the taking from Tract 49.