Eminent Domain, Condemnation & Property Rights Valuation
Valuation of acquired rights, partial takings, remainder impacts, access, highest and best use, and unusual condemnation issues.
The analysis begins with the property right
A condemnation assignment may involve a fee acquisition, easement, access right, temporary construction right, private way, or another interest. The appraisal must value the right identified in the legal framework for the assignment rather than assume that every acquisition is equivalent to a strip of land.
A partial taking may change the property that remains
The relevant questions may include access, circulation, site utility, development potential, setbacks, configuration, exposure, parking, highest and best use, and whether the market recognizes a measurable effect on the remainder.
Public acquisitions and unusual private property-right matters
Ryan Bailey’s condemnation experience includes years of work alongside experienced Arizona eminent-domain appraisal professionals and on assignments involving experienced eminent-domain counsel. The work has included public acquisitions, private condemnation, ways of necessity, disputed access, partial acquisitions, easements, development impacts, and other non-routine property-right issues.
The appraiser analyzes value within the legal assumptions established for the assignment. The appraiser does not decide whether a party is legally entitled to condemn a route or acquire a right.
Access is not always economically interchangeable
Where more than one route or access point is possible, legal availability alone may not resolve the valuation question. Topography, construction feasibility, travel, development yield, site utility, and the portion of the property served can cause one route to have materially different economic consequences from another.
When the legal route has not been determined, the cleanest assignment may be to analyze separately defined scenarios. If the assignment instead asks what a buyer would pay while the outcome remains uncertain, the market’s treatment of that uncertainty must be supported rather than assumed.