Amtrak has filed an eminent domain case against the company that controls the large retail portion of Washington Union Station, claiming it must take control of the full facility to complete concourse improvements.
Union Station Investco LLC, an entity controlled by New York real estate firm Ashkenazy Acquisition Corp., subleases 425K SF of the station, essentially all of the facility minus train infrastructure and a parking garage. In its complaint in District of Columbia District Court Thursday, Amtrak argued that its master plan to expand and modernize the station for its growing passenger volume, developed with federal partners, cannot be completed if Ashkenazy is involved.
Amtrak offered Union Station Investco $250M to buy the station earlier this month, The Washington Post reported, but Ashkenazy didn’t respond within the railroad company’s requested deadline. Amtrak has placed that money in control of the District Court as part of the eminent domain proceeding, the Post reports.
Click here to read the rest of the article written by Jacob Wallace over at Bis Now
