There's something unusual about a new real estate development in the posh South Florida city of Coral Gables. Smack-dab in the middle of the million-square-foot complex, there's a small house. On all sides, it's surrounded -- by parking garages, office buildings and a 14-story hotel. Orlando Capote's home is typical of many in Coral Gables. It's a Mediterranean-style, one-story, two-bedroom stucco house with a picturesque barrel-tile roof. There used to be many homes like it in his neighborhood. Now, his is the last one left. "Just imagine ... that your house was in the middle of Manhattan surrounded by high-rise buildings," Capote says. "That's what it's like."
A good Florida man story.
Not the first time something like this has happened...
Vera Coking house
en.wikipedia.org
... The Vera Coking house was a boarding house owned by a retired homeowner in Atlantic City, New Jersey that was the focus of an eminent domain case involving Donald Trump in the 1990s. It was sold and demolished in 2014.
History
In 1961, Vera Coking and her husband bought the property at 127 South Columbia Place as a summertime retreat for $20,000.[1]
In the 1970s, Penthouse magazine publisher Bob Guccione offered Coking $1 million ($5 million in 2023)[2] for her property in order to build the Penthouse Boardwalk Hotel and Casino. She declined the offer, and Guccione started construction of the hotel-casino in 1978 around the Coking house, but ran out of money in 1980 and construction stopped. The steel framework structure was finally torn down in 1993.[3]
In 1993, Donald Trump bought several lots around his Atlantic City casino and hotel, intending to build a parking lot designed for limousines.[4] Coking, who had lived in her house at that time for 32 years, refused to sell. As a result, the city condemned her house, using the power of eminent domain. She was offered $251,000,[5] a quarter of what she was offered by Guccione 10 years earlier.
With the assistance of the Institute for Justice, Coking fought the local authorities and eventually prevailed.[6] Superior Court Judge Richard Williams ruled that because there were "no limits" on what Trump could do with the property, the plan to take Coking's property did not meet the test of law. ...
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