SC

Upstate Gym Battles Eminent Domain Taking

Supporters pack council meeting as city’s “good neighbor” is being pushed out …

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Plans to oust the decades-old Nautilus Fitness Center from its downtown-Spartanburg location to construct a joint city/county administrative building were met with outrage from members of the local community at a heavily attended city council meeting last week.

Both the city of Spartanburg and Spartanburg County have made it clear they want the Nautilus property for their project.

“Over two years ago, both city council and county council adopted resolutions indicating their view that the optimal site for the new joint city county office building is the block bounded by Church, Kennedy spring and Broad Street that contains the former city hall and city owned parking facility” city manager Chris Story told the Spartanburg city council.

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Nautilus’ “optimal” location in downtown Spartanburg

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Story also claims the project has public support.

“I think it’s also important to consider the goals of the project that were that were approved by the voters of Spartanburg County, and that was to build a state of the art home for local government for the next generation,” Story continued. “So thinking on the order of 60 or 80 years, that was the location that was prominent, easily accessible, visible, and located in a way that can serve the whole county well for a long, long time.”

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This council meeting had above average turnout …

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While voters may have consented to a tax hike to fund additional government buildings, Nautilus’ decades of successful operation in the heart of downtown Spartanburg meant vocal opponents of the project filled every seat at last week’s council meeting.

“Thank you for allowing me to speak before you today” Spartanburg School District 7 board member Jeff Mason. “I’m a member of Nautilus Fitness Center.”

Mason recounted growing up “in a Spartanburg with two malls and a dead downtown.”

“Today we have a vibrant downtown and one mall,” he said.

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Nautilus Fitness Center Community Event (Facebook)

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“Spartanburg was a downtrodden city in 1987 when Nautilus Fitness Center was established and is now Spartanburg’s oldest gym – with a robust membership, a very diverse membership,” he said.

According to Mason, the gym’s owners – John and Marilyn Lankford – invested in a city “with much risk and no guarantee of reward.”

“However, City Hall was rewarded with a good neighbor – and for decades, Spartanburg and Nautilus grew together,” Mason said.

John Lankford

Mason acknowledged government has a legitimate need to take land for projects “central to the core function of government” – but accused the city of taking land it didn’t need in order to sell the remaining parcels to private developers.

“The city has made it clear they want, not need, to build a new building on Church Street,” he said. “The city could build a new building on the land they already have and leave the Nautilus alone. But that wouldn’t leave enough land for the developer, would it?”

Mason told council members Spartanburg was only as good as how it treats all its citizens.

“If you think we will quietly give up and join Planet Fitness, respectfully, you’re not living on this planet,” he said.

Story told this news outlet the city’s plans to work with private developers to develop the property already owned by the city are not yet finalized.

Spartanburg County Council

“We have been working with architects and engineers to develop a potential plan for the build out of the block, but there’s no definitive scope of any private development,” he said.

Story said the sale of land already owned by the city to private developers is “likely” – saying the city wants “to be clear and transparent that it’s part of the plan, but it is not yet finalized.”

The city of Spartanburg reportedly offered Lankford $1.75 million for the property, an offer which Lankford refused.

Lankford told FITSNews he “looked at several buildings downtown” and that “after looking at probably eight or nine buildings that were affordable, we found one building, but they (Spartanburg officials) didn’t want to give us enough money to buy that building and up-fit that building.”

Lankford’s refusal to take the city’s offer marks the end of the Spartanburg’s two-year attempt to convince him to vacate his property voluntarily. City officials have indicated their intention to begin the legal process of compelling Lankford to cede the gym via eminent domain.

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Eminent domain (the power of the government to take private property for public use) has long been controversial, but courts have a history of siding with municipalities agains the interest of private property holders.

In Kelo v. New London, multiple home owners challenged the Connecticut city’s use of eminent domain to take their property in the name of economic development. Five justices sided with the city, and in doing so empowered municipalities to take private lands even if they’re doing so only to pass them to other private hands.

In her dissenting opinion, justice Sandra Day O’Connor warned this arrangement could easily be abused by public officials.

“All private property is now vulnerable to being taken and transferred to another private owner” who intends to “use it in a way that the legislature deems more beneficial to the public,” she wrote.

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Sandra Day O’Connor (Duke University)

O’Connor warned that under such regimes “the specter of condemnation hangs over all property” because “nothing is to prevent the state from replacing any Motel 6 with a Ritz-Carlton, any home with a shopping mall, or any farm with a factory.”

“The beneficiaries are likely to be those citizens with disproportionate influence and power in the political process,” she wrote.

Count on FITSNews to closely scrutinize the financial beneficiaries of any future public-private efforts to develop seized properties as we endeavor to ensure that those citizens with disproportionate influence and power in the political process do not profit from the state’s ability to confiscate private property.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR …

(Via: Travis Bell)

Dylan Nolan is the director of special projects at FITSNews. He graduated from the Darla Moore school of business in 2021 with an accounting degree. Got a tip or story idea for Dylan? Email him here. You can also engage him socially @DNolan2000.

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9 comments

Anonymous July 16, 2024 at 9:55 am

The picture in this article is the County Council. Not City.

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The Colonel Top fan July 16, 2024 at 10:30 am

City, county… everything associated with Spartanburg is a disaster.

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Jose Wales July 16, 2024 at 4:02 pm

They are building a new city/county building. The county will occupy about 90% of it and the city 10%. Due to SC’s archaic annexation laws the city of Spartanburg is very small compared to the urbanized area of the county. The county generally calls the shots. I feel bad for the guy who own Nautilus but he has turned down an offer that is 5X the value on his tax assessment plus an additional $250,000 for moving expenses. The county will get it one way or another. I had thought until this week that the city/county bldg was going to be on the nautilus property but it seems they just want to be able to sell that parcel. Maybe he can work a deal to get a new location plus proceeds from the sale…

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Anonymous July 16, 2024 at 4:54 pm

That’s a fair explanation. The Nautilus owner has not exactly been forthright with his version of the story. He lawyered up so now the County/City can’t say anything except via lawyer. It didn’t have to come to this, but you have to have good faith on both sides to get a fair, reasonable deal. No one would even know he’d been offered 1.75m except the Post & Courier exposed that.

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joe July 18, 2024 at 12:43 pm

If someone wants to keep their property and aren’t concerned with money, then that should be their choice.

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Anonymous July 16, 2024 at 10:54 am

When an immortal collective has the right to take from one to give to another we shouldn’t be surprised that individuals will be squashed.

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Hippity Hoppity Gimme Your Property July 16, 2024 at 11:10 am

Guess it’s a good thing Republicans nominated an eminent domain-abusing clown like Trump to run for president.

I wonder how a conservative SCOTUS feels about eminent domain?

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River Top fan July 16, 2024 at 7:58 pm

TDS

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Anonymous September 17, 2024 at 6:48 am

The city leadership is hell-bent on turning the downtown into an Olympic village without the athletes. Business owners have long been tortured by fees, heavy handed code enforcement and taxes. The city manager has a long term love affair with certain developers.. County leadership is determined to have corporate developers to indiscriminately throw up cheaply built homes, apartments and warehouses anywhere.
This ignorance of common sense isn’t new to “the Burg”. Twenty five years ago the mayor and certain council members and school officials were bribed and cajoled to selling a parcel of property with a viable high school to a developer who specialized in strip centers. No rumor, proven fact that the local elected folks were offered “whatever it took” to expedite the acquisition. Now, the west side is the site of a tired Walmart, Home Depot, and a litany of cookie cutter retailers. The latest addition to the center is a plasma donation center.
Spartanburg has always looked to the west (Greenville) with extreme envy. That combined with continuing influence of certain “elephant”investors and developers ensures that any modicum of common sense will never be considered, especially when government is involved.

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