Norfolk businessman fights NRHA, ODU

NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) - Central Radio Company has been fixing communication systems for the Navy for decades, but now Old Dominion University, through the Norfolk Redevelopment Housing Authority (NRHA), wants the property on 39th Street for retail shopping.

On Thursday, a Bob Wilson, owner of Central Radio, will begin to fight in court to keep his business. The timing of the court battle coincides with a new Virginia law that takes effect on July 1: You cannot take property that is not blighted.

So NRHA and ODU want to begin the eminent domain case to take a Norfolk business before that deadline.

"It's just un-American to me, as far as I'm concerned," said Wilson. After 75 years in business, and 50 years on 39th street and Hampton Boulevard, the threat of eminent domain looms large.

"It is absolutely ridiculous," he said. "You can see for yourself--the building's not blighted, the neighborhood's not blighted. It looks very nice."

Adam Gonyea is one of Central Radio's 100 employees, who installs surveillance cameras on Navy ships.

"We install the camera, the system and we also configure it for them," said Gonyea. But installing cameras is one of many services Central Radio does for the Navy.

Wilson will argue NRHA and ODU cannot take his property through eminent domain because it is not blighted. But the court has disagreed with that in the past, in NRHA vs. Arney.

In that case, Norfolk Circuit Court Judge Louis Sherman stated, "if an area...is subject to rehabilitation the condition of a single structure is immaterial."

Wilson thinks it is wrong to take his property and transfer it for economic development.

"They're taking our land for no reason at all except to give it to somebody else to develop a pizza parlor or a shopping center," he said.

Judge Sherman also stated in the Arney case that, "...making property available for redevelopment by private enterprise is merely incidental..." even though the business is profitable and not blighted.

Nationally recognized eminent domain Attorney Joe Waldo will fight this case all the way to the Virginia Supreme Court, he says.

"Bob Wilson would understand if they were taking this for classrooms. He would understand that, but they're not," said Waldo. "They're taking it for a shopping center. They're taking it to make more money, and that's wrong."

Waldo lost the Arney case, where Judge Sherman found, "even if improved...the entire redevelopment project must be taken into account, rather than the condition of individual properties."

Waldo says the difference in Wilson's case is that the Hampton Boulevard and ODU area is no longer blighted. He says there is no public purpose to take the property.

Central Radio, after servicing the Navy in times of war for years, now finds itself in its own battle.

"Yes sir, we're fighting the whole way."

On Thursday, Waldo will file a response to NRHA-ODU's request to condemn Wilson's business. The attorney representing NRHA, Don Schultz, refused to comment on the pending litigation.