SAN ANTONIO – Bexar County Commissioners voted to spend $7 million of your tax dollars to buy a building for a new Precinct 2 satellite office.<\/p>\n
The county used eminent domain to force the building’s owner to sell but it’s debatable whether taxpayers got a good deal.<\/p>\n
The 55-thousand square foot office tower at Fredericksburg Rd. and Loop 410 will soon house Precinct 2’s Justice of the Peace Court, constable and tax assessor offices.<\/p>\n
The county says it\u2019s a steal, but it paid two million dollars more than it had budgeted for the purchase.<\/p>\n
Eminent domain was used to buy the building after its owner turned down the county’s initial offer.<\/p>\n
Last month three special commissioners appointed by a judge ruled the county should pay just over $7 million.<\/p>\n
The Bexar Appraisal District assessed the building\u2019s value as being significantly lower than that, at $3.9 million.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy are we paying $7 million for a building that was valued by the appraisal district at $3.9 million?\u201d asked Jaie Avila of the News 4 I-Team.<\/p>\n
\u201cAppraisal district values are different than commercial real estate values,” said Bexar County\u2019s Facilities Management Director Dan Curry.<\/p>\n
According to Curry, the county had its own appraisal done which valued the tower at $6 million and the building’s owner appraised it at $8 million.<\/p>\n
\u201cBoth parties provided appraisals, and from what I understand from the hearing, they split the difference between the two appraisals,” Curry said.<\/p>\n
Tuesday county commissioners approved a more than $2 million budget increase for the purchase, while referring to the eminent domain as a friendly condemnation.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt sounds like somewhat of a friendly condemnation,\u201d said Precinct 2 Commissioner Justin Rodriguez.<\/p>\n
\u201cWithout a doubt it’s been cooperative,” responded Curry.<\/p>\n
The building’s owner characterized it differently.<\/p>\n
The attorney for Hanover Partnership Investment of Greenwich, Connecticut said in an email: “This was not a \u201cfriendly condemnation.\u201d The county exercised its eminent domain authority to take the property, and our client had no choice but to defend the value of what was being taken.”<\/p>\n
The county says the building is much cheaper than constructing a new Precinct 2 facility and that it will ultimately be more cost efficient than continuing to lease space for those offices at their current Gilbeau Rd. location.<\/p>\n
Groups that oppose the use of eminent domain say, in this case, it may have backfired on Bexar County.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I’m the property owner myself, in this specific case, I’m thrilled as all can be, however at the same time when you step back for a second, the taxpayers the one who’s on the hook for that increased value,” said Judge Shepard of the Texas Public Policy Foundation.<\/p>\n
The building will have to undergo extensive renovation, and the county says that likely won’t begin until early next year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN ANTONIO – Bexar County Commissioners voted to spend $7 million of your tax dollars to buy a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":252133,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[82,84,83],"class_list":{"0":"post-252132","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-antonio","8":"tag-san-antonio","9":"tag-san-antonio-headlines","10":"tag-san-antonio-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=252132"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252132\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/252133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=252132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=252132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=252132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}