Inside A Billionaire’s Fight With A Small Town Over A Tiny Vacant Lot

Amherst, New York used eminent domain to seize a decrepit property owned by billionaire John Catsimatidis and turn it into a public park. Then the longtime Trump ally went to war.

^The corner of Kenmore Avenue and Niagara Falls Boulevard, in Amherst, New York (pop. 126,000), isn’t much to look at—a vacant lot surrounded by concrete barriers, covered with weeds and well-worn gravel. But it’s a property of great importance to New York City oil and real estate billionaire John Catsimatidis, who owns the lot—or at least used to, until a few weeks ago.

For more than two years, Catsimatidis and the town of Amherst have been locked in a bare-knuckle brawl over efforts to turn the quarter-acre parcel, which has been an eyesore for two decades, into a park. On July 28, the town seized the property, using the power of eminent domain, which allows the government to forcibly take private property if it’s deemed for public use. Catsimatidis, the longtime ally of President Trump and onetime Republican candidate for Mayor of New York City, is not pleased.

“Eminent domain is meant for if you want to put a railroad through or enlarge a road—something for the public good,” Catsimatidis tells Forbes. The billionaire, phoning from his chauffeured commute from the Hamptons to Manhattan, does not believe the public park qualifies. “That little town already has 41 parks. Why do you want a 42nd?”

The issue stretches back to 1999, when the town widened the streets around the heavily-trafficked corner, cutting into the property. Catsimatidis’ United Refining Company had to knock down its gas station on the site, which was no longer large enough to accommodate the pumps. Yet the company held onto the property, paying a few hundred bucks in property taxes each year but doing little else with it. Neighbors began to complain.

In 2018, the town proposed a plan to turn the corner lot, which is near the University at Buffalo’s south campus, into a small park with sheltered bus stops. It got permission to condemn the property, then made its billionaire owner an offer: $81,000 for the lot, based on an appraisal. Catsimatidis wanted none of it.

“This was a small, dinky little thing but I got pissed off about it,” he says. “I decided to make an example of it.”

He refused to yield the property—which is worth less than one-tenth of one percent of his estimated $2.8 billion net worth—to the government, setting off a battle that has played out across the New York state court system. Catsimatidis charged that the taking of his property was unconstitutional, and merely a pretext for the government to create a small park and give the rest of the land to another developer. The town, which called Catsimatidis’ legal defenses “completely without merit and frivolous” in court filings, said that the billionaire essentially neglected his property. It moved forward with plans to seize it.

At one point, Catsimatidis says he offered to buy the neighboring lot from the town and develop a new gas station on the combined property, or build and maintain the city’s park so long as he retained ownership of the parcel and the right to do what he wants with it later. “That was unacceptable,” says Stanley Sliwa, Amherst’s town attorney. “We didn’t want to give someone who’s been sitting on a vacant lot for 20 years the chance to continue to do nothing.”

Both sides have repeatedly accused the other of not being willing to sit down to talk. In a fit of anger, Catsimatidis groused last year that he would no longer invest in the area, telling Buffalo’s NBC affiliate: “I have determined there will be zero investment by our company in the Erie County area and zero new jobs.”

Catsimatidis, a Greek immigrant who grew up in New York City and now has his own talk radio show, owns a Pennsylvania-based oil refinery and around 350 gas stations and convenience stores in Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York. He also operates the Gristedes supermarket chain and some 2 million square feet of real estate, largely in New York City.

In the end, the courts backed Amherst’s plan, ruling last year that the use of eminent domain to seize Catsimatidis’ lot serves a valid public use. Attempts to appeal were unsuccessful. Governments have been given broad power to use eminent domain, according to Bob McNamara, a senior attorney with the Institute for Justice, a public interest law firm that fights eminent domain cases. New York state, he says, is particularly indulgent.

“When it comes to eminent domain, New Yorkers have fewer rights than any American citizens anywhere in the country,” says McNamara. “The theory is eminent domain is only supposed to be used for public uses. Different states have allowed government condemnors to color outside of those lines to greater or lesser extents—New York courts have consistently acted as if those lines don’t exist.”

The town took possession of the lot on July 28, but the battle is far from over. Catsimatidis has three years to file a demand for restitution, which he tells Forbes he plans to do, meaning another battle—over the price the government has to pay him—is on the horizon. The town is still offering $81,000; Catsimatidis says the parcel, which is assessed for tax purposes at $32,000, is worth more than $300,000.

“This was a small, dinky little thing but I got pissed off about it. I decided to make an example of it.”

Catsimatidis says he’s willing to donate the money to charity, and has decided to walk back his announcement that he would not invest another dollar in Erie County. “I calmed down,” he now says. “Just because there’s one asshole politician in one little down, I shouldn’t blame the entire area.”

There is one threat he’s still moving forward with, however: An offer to give campaign funds to anyone who challenges the 2021 reelection of town supervisor Brian Kulpa, who has spearheaded the park project. “God bless him if he does,” says Sliwa, the town attorney. “I can tell you, around this part of the state, whenever you mention New York City money being used to fund a candidate, that’s a death sentence for that candidate.”

Catsimatidis has political ambitions of his own. A donor to both Republicans and Democrats, he ran for mayor of New York in 2013 but lost the Republican primary. He’s considering another bid for the mayor’s office, and says he’s willing to spend as much as $100 million of his fortune on the campaign. Should he win, he tells Forbes he’ll continue the city’s use of eminent domain—but “only for the public good.”

The town has yet to put forth a formal plan for the lot, but says it’s weighing its options. Catsimatidis, meanwhile, preparing for the battle over how much he’s owed, offers a word of caution: “If they can do this to me, they can do it to anybody.”

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