Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1926 [PAGE 494]

EXTRACTED TEXT FROM PAGE:

1925]

U N I V E R S I T Y O F ILLINOIS

491

acquire it or will be able to do so only by paying a sum several times that now asked. 3. The price of $1500 per acre which by your instructions I offered M r . Hessel through our Comptroller, was based on what w e understood to be the price which he paid for the land, part of it about ten years ago and the rest about six years ago, plus 5 % interest compounded through the period with a small margin left for "unearned value". Inquiry showed that opinion in the community set a far higher value on the land than the figure calculated in this way. After getting all the information I could I became convinced that we would have to pay much more. In m y opinion the amount agreed on, subject to your approval, is as low a sum as we can get the land for and lower than w e are very likely to have to pay if we insist on pursuing the condemnation proceedings to a finish as a contest. 4. That the price asked is not unreasonable and is as low as we could get appears to m e probable for these reasons: a. As well as I can make out M r . Hessel's own valuations range all the way up to $290,000 not including the area in the Hessel Boulevard (about three and one-half acres), nor a strip about fifty feet wide adjoining the Illinois Central right-of-way which he reserved for "industrial purposes." b. The value on the basis of a residential subdivision, taking the lowest figures that are reasonable, justifies the proposed price. The accompanying plan, prepared by Professor White, as a suggested subdivision to form a basis for an estimate of value, shows eighteen lots fronting the Stadium and one hundred eighty other lots, thirty-nine of which front Hessel Boulevard, which is one hundred twenty feet wide. It is the unanimous opinion of m y advisors that these lots would be quickly sold without putting any improvements on them for at least the following prices: Eighteen lots on First street at $2500 $45,000 One hundred eighty lots at $500 90,000 Total $135,000 This sum does not include the probable value of the "industrial tract" mentioned above in paragraph (a), estimated by Professor White at $4000. c. Our Attorneys informed m e that of all our witnesses only two had been found who would testify to a valuation lower than $2000 an acre, while most of them mentioned $2500. Again, it became evident from conversations that the witnesses on the other side would testify to valuations ranging from a minimum of $2500 to a m a x i m u m of $6000. If a majority of our own witnesses testified to values of $2000 and upwards, their average valuation would doubtless have run up to between $120,000 and $135,000. Moreover, according to M r . George Huff, who got the opinion of a group of six or seven of the witnesses as to the probable fair basis of compromise, the average of their estimates was $150,000. d. According to information reaching me, the Board of Appraisal of the Real Estate Dealers Association of this community had made a valuation of $205,000. M r . George Huff informs m e that he had a conversation with the chairman of a committee of the Real Estate Board or Association of Champaign and Urbana from which he learned that a committee of that association had been asked by M r . Hessel to make an appraisal of this property. M r . Huff was informed that three of this group made a valuation of $4400 an acre, one of $4300, and one of $4000. The average was $4300. The report of this committee would have been part of M r . Hessel's evidence. O n the basis of these figures the land would cost $205,000. e. Estimates made privately by different individuals ranged all the way from $100,000 to $250,000. f. It is well known that juries in condemnation proceedings are usually if not quite invariably inclined to favor the defendant. g. A title secured by condemnation proceedings alone will not secure us the title to Hessel Boulevard because it has been already dedicated to the city. The its vacation by this city. I to theno doubt that this Mcan Hessel's title, or reversionary interest in the Boulevard, University all for the University proposed contract conveys haveopening the way of r . be done. to arrange for