Newsday: Case not a supreme test

Subject: Case not a supreme test
Date: 11/5/2005 1:59:03 P.M. Eastern Standard Time
From: tenant@tenant.net
Sent from the Internet (Details)



Case not a supreme test

November 4, 2005

In a highly publicized decision in June, the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed
the right of the government to seize private property to clear the way for
private developers.

The court ruled in favor of the city of New London, Conn., which wanted to
raze homes and turn over the land to office and hotel developers to attract
business.

Homeowners who fought the city had argued that the taking would not be for
the kind of "public use" permitted under the Constitution.

New York has wielded such broad power to take land for arenas, hotels,
office towers and big-box stores for purposes of economic revitalization.

In Stony Brook University's condemnation of the Flowerfield property owned
by Gyrodyne Co. of America, the university is exercising its power to seize
private property for the public use of expanding the state school.

There is "no comparison whatsoever" to the Supreme Court case, said M.
Allan Hyman, of Certilman Balin Adler and Hyman in East Meadow, which is
special condemnation counsel to Stony Brook University.

Copyright 2005 Newsday Inc.
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Land is their land
Stony Brook adds former industrial site to campus by eminent domain after
owner rejects $26M offer
Newsday
November 4, 2005

Stony Brook University has taken title to the 246-acre property it is
seizing from a former defense manufacturer, university officials announced
yesterday.

After Gyrodyne Co. of America rejected a $26 million offer from Stony Brook
for the site, which sits next to the university on Route 25A, negotiations
broke down last month and the school moved to condemn the land through
eminent domain.

Gyrodyne yesterday received notice that the university had filed an
acquisition map with the Suffolk County clerk to formally take the title.

"We own the property," Shirley Strum Kenny, the university's president,
said yesterday. She added, "we can begin work now on a Center for
Excellence and Wireless and Information Technology."

The proposed center would be made up of 22 laboratories in a
100,000-square-foot building. University faculty, students and local
businesses would conduct research focusing on homeland security,
cyber-security and other technologies, according to the school.
Construction is expected to begin in 2006 and the center would open in 2008.

Gyrodyne executives yesterday said they would consider the $26,315,000 a
mere "advance payment" and ask the State Court of Claims to set a much
higher value.

Stephen Maroney, Gyrodyne's president and chief executive officer, called
the university's action a "confiscation, not a condemnation ... We're
confident that we will get just compensation for this property."

Ray Montelione, who lives between the university and the site known as
Flowerfield, said he and other neighbors had concerns about traffic
congestion and development on the site. Referring to a recent U.S. Supreme
Court decision in a Connecticut case on eminent domain, he said, "the
government can take your house" for economic development.

The land is zoned light industrial and straddles the towns of Brookhaven
and Smithtown. As one of the last large parcels of undeveloped land on
Suffolk's North Shore, it has been the focus of a highly contentious
eminent domain case.

George Tsunis, president of George Tsunis Real Estate in Hauppauge, said
yesterday he had "written offers in from national developers" for the site
for more than $80 million.

Gyrodyne officials have said they had received offers exceeding $100
million, but Stony Brook representatives said the land would be worth that
much only if the towns changed the zoning to permit the building of houses.

Strum Kenny said, "We acquired several appraisals based on the current
zoning," and "made a good-faith offer for the property."

Gyrodyne, which stopped manufacturing in 1975, had wanted to build a golf
course community on the property, which is 314 acres. The company will keep
the remaining 68 acres.

Staff writer Olivia Winslow contributed to this story.

PROPERTY DISPUTE

GYRODYNE

Wants to build an 18-hole golf course and 336 residential units

Presented the golf course proposal to the Smithtown planning board in
February 2004

Lost a court battle to prevent Stony Brook from seizing the property
through eminent domain

Says the land is worth more than $100 million

STONY BROOK

UNIVERSITY

Wants to build a research and development campus anchored by a wireless and
information technology center

Offered $13.5 million for 188 acres in 2002

Offered $26.3 million for 246 acres in September

Formally took title to the property yesterday

Copyright 2005 Newsday Inc.