Battle Brewing for Stadium Tracts

Owners Get Lawyers And Get Ready to Contest City's Offers

A year ago, Patricia Ghiglino's two-story, yellow-brick art studio in a drab, largely industrial neighborhood in Southeast Washington was worth $654,000 to the District government, which collected taxes based on that assessment.

This month, the city, clearing the way for a new baseball stadium for the Washington Nationals, offered Ghiglino nearly $1.8 million for the property. Her response?

"We're not accepting this offer. No way," she said. "We're definitely going to court."

As District development officials open negotiations with the 23 property owners at the 20-acre stadium site near the Navy Yard and South Capitol Street SE, they are finding that many do not intend to leave without a fight. Although a recent Supreme Court ruling in a Connecticut eminent domain case strengthened the hand of governments in seizing land, more than half of the property owners said they plan to prove that the city's offers are inadequate. At least a half-dozen lawyers have been retained.

After a five-month assessment, city planners have offered the property owners about $97 million for land that was assessed two years ago at $32 million. The city has given the property owners 30 days to respond or face eviction.

Although the owners declined to say how much money they plan to seek, they argued that their neighbors just beyond the stadium site have been making lucrative deals with developers who are convinced that the ballpark district will one day be a cash cow. The biggest profit, the owners said, should go to owners who are being forced to relocate.

"We want enough money to buy back in the same stadium district," Ghiglino said. The city is offering her about $188 per square foot, she said, but "north of my property, things are selling for $350 to $400 per square foot. The city's offer is not fair compensation."

City officials want to clear the land and remediate environmental problems, then begin construction in March, completing the stadium for the Nationals' 2008 season.

Stephen M. Green, the city's development director, who is overseeing the negotiations, said he expects to secure titles to the properties by the end of the year. If the city is unable to purchase all the properties, Green said, officials will place the money in a court-monitored trust and seize the land through eminent domain. The court will decide the sale price.

Under eminent domain law, the District is required to pay owners only as much as the properties would be worth if there were no stadium project. City officials said the stadium project has sparked developers' speculation for land just beyond the ballpark site.

"I've never met any owner who didn't think his property was worth more than the offer," Green said. If owners can prove through independent assessments that the city's offers were low, the District might increase its bids, he said.

Green said that in making assessments, contractors hired by the District considered property values in other areas in the city because sale prices for the land around the stadium site had skyrocketed after the plans were unveiled.