Eminent domain use violates Nashville Private Property Rights

MDHA Exercises Eminent Domain
The Metro Development and Housing Agency exercised its right to eminent today on Music Row. MDHA attorneys filed paper work in a Nashville Circuit Court to acquire 23 Music Circle East.

Metro acts to seize Music Row property

Move will test stricter law on eminent domain

By CHAS SISK

The city has begun legal proceedings to seize the property of a Music Row landowner who has refused to sell to a Houston developer, setting up a fight that has already prompted the involvement of a national advocacy group.

The Metropolitan Development and Housing Agency filed papers in a Nashville court Friday to start a process that would take the offices of Country International Records at 23 Music Circle East.

The action, the city's first test of eminent domain since the state legislature tightened condemnation laws two years ago, was taken after the agency determined that negotiations with building owner Joy Ford would not work, said Joe Cain, the agency's development director.

"We're not having any conversation," Cain said. "We're hopeful that now she will meet with us."

The dispute centers on the last remaining property standing on a three-acre wedge of land between Demonbreun and Division streets at the Music Row Roundabout.

A Houston-based firm, Lionstone Group, has proposed building a $100 million development on the property that would feature a hotel, an office building, stores and condominiums. MDHA says the project is a critical component of the redevelopment strategy for the area.

Ford has refused numerous offers to sell her property, which has housed the record label and music publishing business that she co-founded with her husband, Sherman Ford, since the early 1980s. Sherman Ford died in 1999.

Five developers before Lionstone have tried to acquire the property and have been rejected. MDHA offered Ford $900,000 to move, the amount that an independent appraiser said in April the property was worth, Cain said.

Ford, however, says she's not interested in selling the property at any price.

"This is private property," she said. "It's very painful to know that they're trying to do this in America. There's nothing we can do but fight."

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