California High-Speed Rail Authority
Assignment involving the preparation of appraisals of approximately 150 parcels being acquired for the new alignment for California’s high speed rail system. Our ongoing work on the project is within the Merced to Fresno and Fresno to Bakersfield segments in Kings, Fresno, and Madera counties. Property types include dairies, single family residential, vineyards, orchards, and various other agricultural uses, as well as railroad and industrial properties. All appraisals conform to the guidelines of CALTRANS. Department of Aviation / City of Houston AWS has provided appraisal and appraisal review services for activities undertaken at all of the airports in the City of Houston to include Bush Intercontinental, Hobby, and Ellington Field. A major appraisal problem involved a large property consisting of six warehouse/office facilities; car rental agencies; and two apartment complexes with over 170 occupied units. Other properties involved include multi-use commercial land, motels, and vacant land. Ongoing projects include appraising market value and market rent for facilities within the Houston airport system. Little Rock International Airport / Little Rock Airport Authority Appraisal services for runway expansion. Both partial and whole acquisition appraisals were performed under the requirements of the Uniform Act. DFW International Airport Provided appraisal and litigation support services for the Expansion and New Runway 16/34 East. METRO Light Rail Project (Metropolitan Transit Authority - Houston, Texas) AWS completed appraisal reviews of dual appraisals for the inaugural light rail project in Houston, Texas. The project route extended from Downtown Houston southward through the Medical Center and Midtown and terminated south of the Astrodome and Reliant Park. Property types along the route included improved retail, office, multi-family, light industrial and single family, along with vacant land. The appraisals included the valuation of whole and partial acquisitions for fee simple, permanent easement, and temporary easement acquisitions and most required “Before and After” analysis to measure impact to the remainder. Phoenix Light Rail Project / Arizona Allen, Williford and Seale, Inc. completed approximately 325 appraisal assignments for the Valley Metro Light Rail Project in less than a two year period for the City of Phoenix. All appraisals were completed in a timely manner ahead of scheduled deadlines. The project route began north of downtown Phoenix traveling through the Central Business District, then turned east towards the Sky Harbor Airport and terminated near downtown Tempe, Arizona. The Valley Metro Light Rail project traversed densely populated urban areas comprising of a wide variety of property types with numerous tracts having complex remainder damages. Appraisal serveries included valuations of nearly all property types to include: retail, office, hotel, multi-family, residential, light industrial and vacant land. TGV Project / Texas AWS completed a market study for a proposed TGV train route from Dallas to Houston (East Leg) and Waco to San Antonio (West Leg). Counties involved in the market research included Dallas, Ellis, Navarro, Leon, Robertson, Brazos, Grimes, Waller, Harris, McClennen, Bell, Caldwell, Falls, Williamson, Milam, Travis, Hill, Hays, and Bexar Counties. The scope of services included data research and confirmation for use in preparing a market data book. Data contained in the data book included sales, listings, ad valorem maps and assessments, county economic information and conditions, and value ranges for various property types. Superconducting Super Collider Project / Texas AWS was heavily involved in the appraisal function of this project completing approximately 400 appraisals out of a 1,200-parcel project. Property types included both rural residential and agricultural, as well as several special purpose type properties. Appraisal problems consisted of whole property takings, partial acquisitions considering damages, and subsurface stratified fee takings. In addition, AWS provided expert testimony and litigation support at numerous eminent domain proceedings. Shared Telecommunication Resources Rate Study for Right of Ways in Idaho’s Interstate Corridors The scope of this assignment was to collect and verify completely, comparable transactions of shared resource agreements in interstate highways from state departments of transportations. Responsible individuals with the individual states were interviewed based on the pertinent details concerning existing, proposed or defaulted agreements concerning uses of interstate right of ways. The findings from the interviews were summarized and considerations for in-kind services were allocated on a monetary basis when possible. Florida Overland eXpress (FOX) AWS completed a market study of land values for a proposed high-speed train that would link Florida's three major metropolitan areas of Tampa-Orland-Miami. The scope of services included data research and findings for different land uses in order to prepare an estimate for right of way costs for each of the proposed routes. |