Pappas family settles for $4.5 million

Sito Negron

Thursday, Aug. 19, 2004 | 10:57 a.m.

The Pappas family will receive $4.5 million to end an 11-year struggle that began as a quest to keep their downtown property, but evolved into a fight over the value of the parcel, now part of the Fremont Street Experience garage.

The Las Vegas City Council, acting as the Redevelopment Agency, approved the settlement Wednesday.

"I sense the council is about to remedy a curse hanging over the city since I took office," said Mayor Oscar Goodman, in a statement before the vote took place. Although the parties were scheduled for court in September, and Goodman said the city stood a good chance of ultimately paying far less than the $4.5 million, "I think it's time the city put this unfortunate time behind us," the mayor said.

Lawyer James Leavitt, representing the Pappas family, agreed.

"All that is necessary is the signature from the mayor and the case will be resolved," Leavitt said.

The city used eminent domain to secure the Pappas family's 7,000-square-foot property, which was used as part of the Fremont Street Experience parking garage. The family fought the city, taking the case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which, in the spring, declined to hear the case.

Eminent domain is the term used when the government takes land for "public use," a term understood to mean roads and other such infrastructure. However, a Supreme Court decision in the 1950s considered erasing "blight" as a public good, leading to the current battles across the country as cities sometimes take private property and give it to developers in hopes of stimulating the economy, as happened with the Fremont Street Experience.

Ironically, a court ruling that could have helped the Pappas family was decided in the end of July, too late to aid the family's case. The Michigan Supreme Court reversed a 1981 decision that allowed the city of Detroit to take a neighborhood and give it to General Motors for a new plant.

The case shifted the burden of proving condemnation was taking place for a "public need" to proving that there was a "public benefit" from the taking. That case was cited by the Nevada Supreme Court when it ruled that the city of Las Vegas had the right to take the Pappas family's land and give it to the Fremont Street Experience.

The $4.5 million figure first was offered by the city of Las Vegas several years ago. The Pappas family had asked for $7 million, and the city appraisers have said the land is worth less than $1 million.

The Pappas family, after the Supreme Court ruling killed their last shot at recovering the property, made the latest $4.5 million settlement offer.

Harry Pappas said he had "mixed feelings" about the settlement. Although the money is now available to his mother, allowing her a comfortable retirement, "this should have never occurred in the first place in this country, that citizens have to fight for so long and spend so much money in an attempt to get back what's rightfully theirs."

He declined to say how much his family's attorney fees had totaled for the 11-year battle, but he said the long dispute created enormous pressure on his family.

"We fought them (the city) all the time," Pappas said. "The stress is tremendous; you worked all your life and accumulated assets and then you have people who want your assets and they have the government go after you. So in one way it's (the settlement) a relief but in another way it's not."