The TRUTH About Donald Trump’s Eminent Domain Case
On the 2016 campaign trail, Ted Cruz and Hillary Clinton made the blatantly false charge that Donald Trump used eminent domain to seize and bulldoze a widow's home, leaving her homeless for the purpose of building a parking lot for his casino. Sounds pretty damning, except for the fact that it's NOT true. It never happened. Here is the TRUTH: This started in the 70's with Bob Guccione (Penthouse). Bob Guccione was the one who used eminent domain on Vera Coking to take her house for building his casino. In 1979, Bob Guccione offered her $1.5M for her boarding house, but she refused asking for $4M (even though her neighbors sold their properties to Bob Guiccione for $110K to $250K. https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2519&dat=19791024&id=cfVdAAAAIBAJ&sjid=mF8NAAAAIBAJ&pg=1513,3718552&hl=en
Bob Guccione was the one who tried to have her property condemned and filed with the state for eminent domain. Not Trump, but Bob Guccione. Trump wasn't even in the picture until 1993 (more on that later). Vera Coking refused to budge and went to the courts to stop him -- Bob Guccione. In the meantime, Guccione started building around and OVER Vera Coking's house, when suddenly in 1980, the project went bust and Bob Guccione walked away, leaving the casino partially built and everything a mess. In 1993, Trump, looking to get into the Atlantic City casino/hotel market, then stepped in and bought up the property and project cheap (like he always does!). In 1996, Trump offered Vera Coking $1M for her home -- which at the time was valued at $251K -- and she refused it because she was holding out for $3M. https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2199&dat=19960218&id=WNBeAAAAIBAJ&sjid=tOYFAAAAIBAJ&pg=3815,892567&hl=en
Remember, that her property had already been condemned at this point. And it wasn't a "home" it was a "boarding house." in an area which, at the time, was overrun with drug addicts and drug dealers. Trump also took down and dismantled the girders that Guccione had put up around and over her boarding house. In 1998, the court's decision came in and ruled in Vera Coking's favor. Trump made Vera Coking another offer starting at $1M and, it is said, going as high as $5M, which she again refused, holding out again for even more money, and so at that point, Trump simply walked away, left her alone, and built the parking lot around her (the casino is across the street). In 2010, Vera Coking moved from New Jersey to a retirement home in San Francisco and transferred ownership of the house to her daughter who put the house on the market. On July 31st 2014 the house was sold to Carl Icahn for $583K ($417K to $4.417M LESS than the $1M to $5M Trump had previously offered her): Billionaire Carl Icahn buys home of Atlantic City widow and more:
https://www.bing.com/search?q=Vera+Coking&PC=U316&FORM=CHROMN Five months later on November 19th, 2014, Carl Icahn demolished the house. Not Donald Trump, but Carl Icahn.
So, there you have it; Donald Trump did not seize a widow's home and make her homeless, and he did not bulldoze her home. Ted Cruz lied in an a ttempt to win a Presidential Primary, and Hillary Clinton lied in an attempt to win a Presidential race.
If anything Trump was more than fair to her and offered her a great deal for her property, which she stubbornly refused for reasons born only of pure greed. Case closed.