Circuit Court Judge Jonathan Apgar signed off on a settlement agreement that provided HPT TA Properties— the former owners of the Truckstops America property at Exit 150— with a total of $7.2 million for the 12 acres taken as part of the traffic improvement project at the interstate intersection.

The Department of Transportation (VDOT) took the property by eminent domain in August 2013 and demolished the former truckstop just over a year later. At the time VDOT took the property, it placed $6.28 million with the Clerk of Court for the truckstop owners.

Still, HPT officials challenged the appraised value and argued over the next two years that the business was profitable and the property was worth more.

Finally, a November 2017 jury trial was scheduled in Botetourt Circuit Court to hear the case. But a month before the trial, the Commissioner of Highways and HPT officials agreed to the settlement figure, and the court entered the order agreeing to the deal in late December.

HPT received $920,000 more (nearly 15 percent) than the original value placed on the property by VDOT appraisers.

Apgar also signed off on a settlement for about 150 square feet of property owned by Carter Bank and Trust near the US 220/US 11 intersection. VDOT appraised the property at $370, but the Commissioner of Highways and the company settled on $5,000, according to the late December order.

In 2016, a Botetourt civil jury agreed that Bland Painter III should received $3.1 million for land VDOT took for what essentially became Gateway Crossing and part of the new roundabout for the road improvement project. That was more than three times VDOT’s $867,608 appraised value when it filed for eminent domain in 2013.

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