Will the port pay up?

[thelakelander]

The jury demands that JaxPort pay Keystone four times as much as they originally offered.

Jury: Port Authority must pay $67 million to get Keystone property

The Jacksonville Port Authority must pay $67.4 million to take 70 acres from Keystone Coal Co. by eminent domain, a jury decided May 2.

The verdict followed a two-week valuation trial that culminated a two-and-a-half-year process the authority had followed to acquire the property at the north end of Talleyrand Avenue for expansion.

Having won a court ruling in December 2006 that the authority could take the property, it had not committed to taking it until it knew the price. Now it knows that price is more than four times what the authority offered prior to filing a petition for condemnation.

The authority has not said whether it will pay the amount in the verdict or decline to complete the taking.

Joel Settembrini, the lead attorney representing the authority, declined to comment about whether the authority would appeal the verdict.

Authority Executive Director Rick Ferrin has described the Keystone property, which is adjacent to about 30 acres the authority acquired through eminent domain from Jax Maritime Partners LLC, as vital to the authority's future.

Ferrin has said the property could be leased to a coal terminal operator, the same use Keystone has planned, to generate millions of dollars in lease payments and fees that could help pay to deepen the shipping channel. And more recently, he's mentioned the property as being suitable for Talleyrand Marine Terminal tenant Hamburg Süd to expand its Jacksonville operations.

full article:  http://sanjose.bizjournals.com/jacksonville/stories/2008/05/05/daily5.html

[Jason]

So does Keystone actually operate on the property or are they just sitting on it?

[thelakelander]

Keystone purchased it to convert the old mill site into a coal terminal.  Before they could start on the reconstruction, the port authority decided to take it from them via eminent domain.

[Jason]

Ahhh, I see.  Thanks.

It wouldn't be to Keystone's benefit to sell the property and then lease it from the Port Authority then.  I can see why they're fighting it.

[Charles Hunter]

If JaxPort decides the new price is too much, and "passes" - could Keystone have a case to sue JaxPort for the business the have conceivably lost while this has been going on?