Bloomfield had offered to pay $440,000 for it, attorneys said.
Bloomfield owe a land owner nearly $3 million. File photo. (Jessica Mazzola | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)BLOOMFIELD -- A New Jersey town has to pay an owner about seven times what it offered for a property taken by eminent domain.
An Essex County Superior Court jury Friday ordered the town of Bloomfield to pay $2.9 million for a parcel of land that it had previously condemned, an attorney for the parcel's owner said Monday. The property, which is about two-thirds of an acre and houses an historic train station once run by the Erie-Lackawanna Railroad, was owned by the Bloomfield Daval Corporation, a business led by Howard Haberman, the company's attorney, Anthony DellaPelle, of McKirdy Riskin, said in a release about the decision.
According to DellaPelle, Haberman had attempted to build 34 apartments and 12,000 square feet of commercial space on the land, but the town condemned the property via eminent domain in 2012.
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A town appraiser valued the parcel at $440,000, and township experts argued during the trial that the property could not reasonably be developed, DellaPelle said. The jury disagreed, and said the town owes Haberman more than six times that amount for the land, he said.
"The Haberman family had been eager to be part of the revitalization of downtown Bloomfield for many years - and was promised an opportunity to participate in the town's redevelopment," DellaPelle said in a statement.
"However, since the town changed its mind and took the property via eminent domain, the family was left with only one option - to seek a fair price for the property it had owned for 50 years - as the property owner is constitutionally entitled to receive just compensation for any property taken by eminent domain."
In a statement to NJ Advance Media, a spokesman for Bloomfield Mayor Michael Venezia said the four-year legal battle over the property might not be over.
"The township disagrees with this ruling and is reviewing its legal options and exploring the possibility of appealing the decision," spokesman Phil Swibinski said.
Over the past several years, Bloomfield has been aggressively redeveloping much of its downtown, which was designated a transit village by the state in 2003.
Jessica Mazzola may be reached at jmazzola@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @JessMazzola. Find NJ.com on Facebook.