By Mar-Vic Cagurangan
Dr. Joel Joseph, who owns two pieces of property marked to be condemned for a hospital project, said he would contest the government’s attempt to take his land at a bargain price.
“I’m going to fight this all the way,” said Joseph, a veterinarian who owns the Wise Owl Animal Hospital in Tamuning.
Based on the eminent domain filing in the Superior Court, the Guam Housing and Urban Renewal Authority plans to compensate Joseph approximately $3.95 million for his two parcels of land measuring about 55,000 sqm. combined.
Before the government stepped in to make an offer, Joseph said he had already spent close to $1 million to start developing his property, where he planned to build a solar-powered aquamation facility for pets, which would be complemented by a small veterinary clinic and a small chapel.
The aquamation process, which uses alkaline hydrolysis to dissolve, purify and sterilize pet remains, would generate organic fertilizers, Joseph explained.
“We've already started getting ready to build. We've already got the plans approved through (the Department of Public Works),” he said. “We have several containers there and the quarter-million dollars’ worth of aquamation equipment is already there.”
Joseph said he had initially accepted GHURA’s offer but subsequent negotiations made him question the agency's intentions as it tried to backpedal on the terms they originally agreed to.
“Initially, they told me they were going to pay me for everything I spent on it. What I actually spent on the property is close to $800,000 to $900,000,” he said.
“They wanted a long list of proof of everything and that would have to be done after I signed the agreement. I said, ‘no, I don't trust you. I've been through this before. You can't trust them to follow through on this later.”
Joseph said the agency also offered vague proposals. “The other thing they were giving me back is one acre of my property so I can have my house, my business and all the things that I want,” he said. “But they wouldn't define where the anchor would be.”
GHURA also initially agreed to cover the costs of relocating his assets from the aquamation site to the other property. “Well, they removed that (condition); nothing about paying it,” the veterinarian said.
Overall, Joseph said GHURA’s offer was well below what he had hoped to get for surrendering his land and related investments.
“I was asking for $6 million, to be honest. I would have settled and signed on the paper for $5 million. You got to understand, $2 million is gone right as soon as I signed,” he said. “Then we have all the capital gains taxes. By the time I'm done with fees and everything else, $2.5 million is gone. So if they’re offering $4 million, then I have to retire on $1 million.”
GHURA listed 169,795 sqm. of land for taking under eminent domain. The other target properties are owned by Hong Yi Tian Inc. and "other unnamed owners."
GHURA previously purchased a 194,081-sqm. property owned by the late Catalina Camacho. The deal closed for $3.5 million, with estate administrators Edward Camacho and Peter Manibusan selling the land through the brokerage firm Blue Water Realty.
Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero set her eyes on these connecting properties to
develop a 102-acre medical campus despite persistent calls from the legislature and the medical sector to build it at Oka Point in Tamuning.
Joseph warned that the government might end up wasting money due to litigation that is typically anticipated to drag on for years without a new hospital being built.
Attorney General Douglas Moylan on Friday took GHURA and Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero to federal court on Guam, seeking to block the proposed land acquisitions which he said were marred by violation of open government law.
In the complaint, Moylan cited a 2015 case law that involved Joseph’s successful appeal of the Guam Board of Allied Health Examiners’ decision to suspend his veterinary practice.
The Supreme Court voided the board’s decision, holding that it violated the open government law when it took actions without giving inadequate notice before the meeting.
“I am doing the same thing I did 10 years ago,” Joseph said. “I'm writing up paperwork that if I pass away, my children will fight this.”
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