A payout of $4.3 million to the former owners of Vail Court was approved by Cambridge city councillors July 21 to settle a lawsuit and get construction of affordable, senior or transitional housing on the site back on track.
The council held a special meeting in which the payout was approved, followed by confirmation from city spokesperson Jeremy Warnick that “the parties are finalizing settlement.” It was unknown Monday how quickly progress would be restarted at the 0.65-acre property at 139 Bishop Allen Drive, near Central Square, where the city once hoped to start construction in the fall of 2018.
The 24 apartments at Vail Court had long been empty and boarded-up when the council began talking in its 2014-2015 term about taking the property by eminent domain; the Abuzahras were still caught up at the time in more than a decade of legal squabbles over which family members would develop the site and profit from it. Councillors approved in September 2016 the city giving $3.7 million to the Abuzahras as compensation for the land and a transfer of the property to the Cambridge Affordable Housing Trust for development.
Another $750,000 was allocated in June 2017 to tear down the pair of boarded-up, rat-infested three-story structures.
Legal actions from the Abuzahras began immediately, blocking the teardown temporarily and protesting the land taking. A judge told the city in February 2021 to pay its $3.7 million to the family even as the Abuzahras went on fighting.
The money that was voted July 21 comes atop that $3.7 million, making the total for the Vail Court property $8 million, councillor Paul Toner confirmed Saturday.
The Abuzahras had been fighting for as much as $50 million for the property, according to someone familiar with the proceedings, but were brought back down to an additional $4.3 million payout when their own appraiser valued the land far lower.
Questions about a finalized settlement or a timeline for one – and other questions about how quickly plans to build affordable housing might progress on the site – were emailed Monday to Warnick and left by voicemail and text with other city staff who might provide information while Warnick is away. There was no further information Monday when the settlement was “still in the works,” said another spokesperson, Lee Gianetti.
Anger over 12 years of nonuse at the former AMC Loews theater in Harvard Square has led to calls by some members of the public for a land taking of the theater on Church Street, which is owned by billionaire Gerald Chan.
The eight-year legal delay at Vail Court is a reason the city is cautious about eminent domain, city councillor Patty Nolan said Saturday. The city of Somerville also lost a land-taking case in January, and must pay an additional $29.8 million for 4 acres of the former Cobble Hill Shopping Center atop the initial $8.8 million.
“I understand why the city is reluctant” to take the Church Street property, “given that Vail Court should have been a slam-dunk case,” Nolan said.
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Another 8 million. Can this city get anything right?