Court orders MTA to pay $141m to 'hub' owners.

Justice Walter B. Tolub of the New York State Supreme Court has ruled, after a seven-day trial, that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority must pay $141.7 million for property it took through eminent domain to develop the Fulton Street Transit Center.

The court said the MTA must pay the Riese Organization $35.2 million for 194 Broadway, a property the MTA valued at millions of dollars less than Justice Tolub's award.

Justice Tolub also ordered the MTA to pay a total of $106.5 million for 204-210 Broadway, 198 Broadway and 192 Broadway, owned by the Reformed Protestant Dutch Church of the City of New York, and for 200 Broadway, owned by Brookfield Properties.

These properties were all taken by the MTA as part of the Fulton Street Transit Center project.

Rosenberg & Estis, P.C. represented the Riese Organization, which had controlled 194 Broadway for more than 40 years. The Riese Organization operates numerous restaurants including TGI Fridays and Kentucky Fried Chicken.

On behalf of the Riese Organization, Rosenberg & Estis argued that the properties should be valued as an assemblage, and not as individual parcels, as the MTA had contended.

The court agreed in its decision that the highest and best use of the properties is through an assemblage, which would merge air rights and permit the construction of a mixed-use office and residential space with 648,710 s/f.

The court then determined the value of the properties using an average of comparative sales from 2006, which was when the MTA acquired the properties.

According to Warren A. Estis, founding partner of Rosenberg & Estis and lead counsel for the Riese Organization, "Because the Court's award was substantially in excess of the MTA's valuation, we plan to seek to recover from the MTA Riese's attorney's fees and other expenses."