The city of Austin has until May 7 to decide whether to play its last legal card in a decadelong eminent domain battle over control of a Downtown block. The Texas Supreme Court would be the next – and final – stop for the city should it decide to contest a recent 3rd Court of Appeals ruling that effectively returns ownership of Block 38 to Austin lawyer Harry Whittington.
The block – bounded by Fourth and Fifth streets and Red River and Sabine – contains the city-owned Austin Convention Center parking garage, including ground-floor retail space and an Austin Energy chilling plant, all of which were built as the multifaceted case wended its way through various courtrooms over the years, with most verdicts consistently favoring Whittington.
Renea Hicks, one of the attorneys representing the city in the case, said officials are evaluating whether to move ahead with an appeal. If they decide not to, the city would need to broker an arrangement with Whittington to ensure the continued operations of the parking garage and chiller system. Even if he prevails, Whittington said he would likely keep the existing structures intact. Win or lose, though, Whittington will still walk away with a sizeable sum of money. A jury in 2007 set Whittington’s award at $10.5 million, an amount owed for the land that has since been drawing interest at a “magnanimous” rate of 8.25%, Whittington said, noting, “That’s up to $14 million now.” In the latest ruling handed down in February, the court also ordered the city to pay attorneys’ fees totaling nearly $675,000, down from a previous judgment of $779,418.
Whittington, who is more widely known as the fellow hunter shot and wounded by former Vice President Dick Cheney in 2006, remains steadfast in his belief that the “taking” of the property – a saga that has been playing out since 2000 – was for economic development purposes rather than for public use, as the city asserts. He says the condemnation benefited the developer of the nearby Hilton Hotel, who had struck a private-public partnership deal with the city that called for underground parking for the Convention Center. The developer later told the city that the parking component of the hotel package would be cost-prohibitive, so the city then began condemnation proceedings against the Whittington property. As a result, he said, “They allowed the developer to make $10 million more [on his project].
This article appears in The End of UT Football.
