Pappas thinks LV will win condemnation appeal

Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2003 | 9:47 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- A member of the Pappas family, which has been engaged in a seven-year battle over the Fremont Street Experience, doesn't think the family will prevail in the latest hearing before the Nevada Supreme Court.

"I think they are going to win," Harry Pappas said after the high court took the arguments under submission. He said his assessment was based on the questions the justices asked of his attorney, Glade Hall.

Former District Judge Don Chairez ruled in 1996 that the Las Vegas Downtown Redevelopment Agency had not followed the law when it condemned the property at Las Vegas Boulevard and Carson Street owned by Carol Pappas and her sons Harry and John.

The redevelopment agency, the Fremont Street Experience Limited Liability Co. and the Fremont Street Experience Parking Corp. appealed, and a parking garage was built on the site.

The Pappas family now is asking the redevelopment agency to lease the property to them. They maintain the Chairez ruling holds the condemnation was illegal and it is still their property.

But attorneys Samuel Lionel and Daniel Polsenberg, representing the downtown interests and the redevelopment agency, told the court that Chairez's decision should be reversed and the case returned to District Court in Las Vegas to set the amount of money that should be paid the family for the condemnation of their property.

The redevelopment agency wants to pay $340,000 for the 7,000 square feet, based on a 1992 valuation.

"Every constitutional protection" afforded the Pappas family was violated, Hall argued. There was "no credible evidence blight existed" on the property to justify the eminent domain, he said.

Justice Nancy Becker said during the hearing that the downtown area was deteriorating, "in bad shape and getting worse." After the Fremont Street Experience was built, Becker said the area "prospered for years."

The building of a garage is not a development project, Hall said. Instead the redevelopment was an attempt to create a private facility.

"There is nothing to suggest parking was related to redevelopment," he said.

But justices suggested the garage could be for tourist safety and for attracting visitors to the light show at the Fremont Street Experience.

Lionel noted the case was almost 10 years old.

"There should be a trial to make a determination on just compensation," he said.

He said the family has no right to a ground lease of the property.

Polsenberg said this case was set for trial three times and it was postponed by attorneys for the family.

"They waited for the building to be completed," he said.

He said the attorneys for the family raised "novel and bizarre issues."

After the hearing, Harry Pappas said, "If private property rights are the wellspring of freedom and liberty, then we believe the Nevada Supreme Court will uphold the intent of the framers and the Constitution of the United States."

But he added he was not confident about winning the case.

The court took the arguments under submission and will rule later.