Highway Widening Condemnation, Suburban Office Park

The Deal

You are the asset manager at Highgate Commerce Partners, LLC, which owns Meridian Pointe Office Park, an 84,000-square-foot, three-story, fully-leased office building on 6.20 acres at 4400 Commerce Boulevard in Alderwood, Georgia. On July 20, 2026, the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) sent a Notice of Condemnation for the SR 9 (Commerce Boulevard) Widening Project, taking a 41,800-square-foot strip of the property's frontage and a portion of its parking field via eminent domain for a new travel lane, a right-turn deceleration lane, and a stormwater retention facility. GDOT's letter offers $752,400 in total just compensation and asserts that the taking causes $0 in severance damages to the remainder, reasoning that the remaining building can simply operate as a legal nonconforming use under the city's parking code. Highgate has 30 days to respond and retained its own MAI appraiser, who produced an independent appraisal valuing both the land taken and severance damages to the remainder — including the effect of the lost parking spaces on the building's compliance with the City of Alderwood's zoning-mandated minimum parking ratio, and the exposure that shortfall creates under the anchor tenant's lease. Your job is to work through the independent appraisal and the anchor lease, determine whether the post-take property still meets the zoning parking minimum, and decide whether GDOT's offer — particularly its position on severance damages — adequately compensates Highgate before the response deadline.