Fountains of Franklin has a problem; the land it owns is bisected by a storage facility, and the owners will not sell (even as the city of Franklin applies pressure). FofF can't really do much in terms of a unified commercial space until they get the owners of the storage facility to sell them the land that effectively splits their developable property. You can't get from one section to the other without going back out on Rawson (though that "solution" would be par for the course in Franklin).
Wouldn't it be funny if the developers of Fountains of Franklin found out that rival developer Mark Carstensen - - whose not-yet-ready-for-prime-time Target-Sendik's strip mall has a ribbon cutting scheduled for tomorrow - - was visiting the owner of that storage facility?
Greg Kowalski has the damning photo posted at Metro Milwaukee Today: Development drama in Franklin?
(A Cadillac Escalade - that's just perfect.)
I wonder if eminent domain will come into play if the storage facility refuses to sell. It sounds like it's waiting for a bidding war, though--if the reporter's conspiracy theory turns out to be true.
A similar thing happened in downtown Bridgeport, CT not that long ago. In this case, however, the holdouts were homeowners who had been there for years and were forced to sell after they lost the eminent domain fight.
Posted by: Liz Stone Abraham | July 09, 2008 at 06:51 AM
From what I'm hearing, the "carrot" has been abandoned, and the city is starting to use the "stick," though I'm sure eminent domain is something they are loath to wield.
The owners of the land are a nice older couple who have a house there and genuinely want to stay for reasons other than financial considerations. No one who knows them suspects them of trying to leverage the situation for more money.
Problem is, the development planned for the land isn't exactly awe-inspiring.
Posted by: John Michlig | July 09, 2008 at 07:15 AM
The City of New London wasn't at all loath to wield emininent domain (it was New London, not Bridgeport). Here's a recent follow up to that story: http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/06/21/house_in_ct_eminent_domain_dispute_finds_new_home/
Posted by: Liz Stone Abraham | July 09, 2008 at 02:41 PM
A sticky issue. The "property rights" crowd is pretty right wing; they LOVE the freeways but now want to take up the cause of eminent domain abuses.
Here in Milwaukee we tore down an entire African-American neighborhood to carve the freeway through (Bronzeville).
Posted by: John Michlig | July 10, 2008 at 10:21 AM