Monthly Archives: July 2008

Tulsa World staff writer P.J. Lassek writes today about Mayor Kathy Taylor’s proposed $60 million baseball stadium and mixed use project for the historic Greenwood District. Although the city, as the Tulsa Development Authority, already owns the land where the stadium would be built, it does not own the surrounding real estate, which would be desirable if a larger mixed-use facility was designed for the site. Mr. Lassek writes in his article that backers of Mayor Taylor’s project have indicated that it is “vital to have the larger footprint to create a successful project and spur further economic development.”

JACKSONVILLE, FL, Jul 29, 2008 (MARKET WIRE via COMTEX) — After almost two years in litigation, the Board of the Jacksonville Port Authority (Jaxport) has decided to abandon the eminent domain taking of Keystone Coal Company’s 70-acre property on the St. Johns River.

A St. Louis jury recently awarded property owner Bill Simon of Alton, Illinois, $2,871,200 for the 2 acres of land he owned just north of the Edward Jones Dome in downtown St. Louis. Simon purchased the property in 1999 for $523,000 as an investment. Attorney Paul Henry explained “He bought it because the area had potential.”

With this our first blog post, we would like to explain our goals as an organization and what we intend to discuss in this blog. Owners’ Counsel of America (OCA) is an organization which has sought to bring together the most experienced eminent domain attorneys in the country as a resource to each other in the defense of private property ownership. OCA members stand at the forefront of property rights issues, defending our constitutional guarantee to own and enjoy real property.