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State land deals for North Texas highway construction under scrutiny
By Reese Dunklin
Dallas Morning News
December 19, 2013
Questions are arising again about whether the state overpaid for land to widen a traffic-clogged highway in North Texas.
My colleague Kevin Krause reported Sunday that two businessmen bought right of way along Interstate 35E in Dallas and Denton County. They then sold it to the state within months for a profit. For one tract, the Texas Department of Transportation paid four times the original purchase price.
The businessmen, Kevin Bollman and Wade Blackburn, told Kevin they simply analyzed construction plans to learn where and when to buy. They also hired one of the agency’s former right-of-way officials.
That official, Travis Henderson, said he helps the businessmen only on deals outside the area he once worked. The transportation department, for its part, isn’t talking. It also isn’t releasing documents about the purchases.
One elected official has expressed doubts about the deals. “Transactions like this sure don’t look right to me,” Denton County Commissioner Hugh Coleman said.
That case reminds me of my 2001 reporting on the state’s purchase of State Highway 121 right of way in Denton County.
You may recall the name of the seller. The Maharishi Global Development Fund was affiliated with the late Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, a meditation guru to The Beatles. In 2000, the fund came to The Colony and said it wanted to build the world’s tallest skyscraper.
That plan fizzled. As the fund planned its next move, the state came looking for right of way to widen SH121.
The fund hired the county’s transportation consultant and North Texas Tollway Authority board appointee to help negotiate.
The state offered about $11 million. The price per acre was about two times higher than what the fund paid the year before. But the fund wanted nearly $20 million more.
The sides couldn’t agree. A legal dispute ensued. A special panel eventually ordered the state to double its payout. That ended up being five times what the fund had spent originally.