Zoning & Land Use
Verified Update
On Appeal
Pennsylvania's Commonwealth Court reversed a trial court's site-plan ruling but remanded Bluetriton Brands' groundwater-contamination challenge to Weis Markets' proposed Bangor Plaza gas station, leaving the special exception unresolved.
The Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania reversed a Northampton County trial court's holding that Weis Markets needed to submit a site plan before adding a fuel station to its Bangor Plaza supermarket, but remanded the case because the trial court never addressed all of objector Bluetriton Brands' arguments against the Zoning Hearing Board's grant of a special exception for the project. Bluetriton, which operates a spring-water extraction business on parcels adjoining and downstream of the site, presented hydrogeology and petroleum-storage expert testimony that the fuel station could contaminate the aquifer feeding its Deer Park brand's Greenwaltz Spring source.
No dollar figure stated; dispute over adding a fuel station to a 20.3-acre shopping center
Nov 10, 2026
Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania
Lending & Foreclosure
Verified Update
Ruling Issued
The Court of Appeals of Virginia held a city may collect default statutory interest and penalties on delinquent commercial real estate taxes even when its own ordinance is defective, but can't apply a newly passed penalty ordinance retroactively.
The Court of Appeals of Virginia held that Colonial Heights could collect delinquent real estate tax interest and penalties on commercial parcels owned by Alpene Land, LLC and Barker Investment Corporation under Virginia's statewide default penalty and interest rates, even though the circuit court had found the City's own local penalty ordinance ineffective. But the court agreed with the circuit court that a new penalty ordinance the City passed in August 2024, while the tax-sale litigation was pending, could not be applied retroactively to taxes already delinquent before it was enacted.
Over $65,000 in delinquent real estate taxes across nine tax years (2016-2024)
Nov 10, 2026
Court of Appeals of Virginia
Zoning & Land Use
Verified Update
On Appeal
Mississippi's Court of Appeals affirmed Hinds County's approval of conditional use permits for a 5,800-acre solar farm and battery storage facility, rejecting a neighbor's claim that the Board needed written findings.
The Mississippi Court of Appeals affirmed Hinds County's approval of conditional use permits allowing Soul City Storage, LLC and Soul City Energy, LLC to build a solar farm and battery storage facility on roughly 5,800 acres near Bolton, rejecting a neighboring resident's argument that the county Board of Supervisors was required to issue separate written findings on each zoning-ordinance factor before approving the project. The panel held the ordinance's written-decision requirement does not prescribe a specific form, and that Soul City's detailed site plans and supplemental applications in the record adequately addressed the ordinance's substantive concerns.
Not a damages matter (conditional use permit appeal)
Nov 10, 2026
Court of Appeals of Mississippi
Commercial Lease Disputes
Verified Update
Ruling Issued
An Illinois appellate court held that a commercial landlord's claim for a tenant's already-accrued unpaid rent is a freely assignable asset, reviving a rent-collection suit against a Chicago tenant that had been dismissed for lack of standing.
The Appellate Court of Illinois, First District, held on November 9, 2026, that a commercial landlord may assign its claim for a tenant's already-accrued, unpaid rent to a third party, reversing a Cook County circuit court that had dismissed a rent-collection suit against a Chicago commercial tenant for lack of standing. The circuit court had relied on an 1872 Illinois Supreme Court decision and a 2018 First District opinion for the proposition that claims for back rent do not transfer when assigned separately from the property. The appellate panel found that reasoning inconsistent with the modern Illinois law of assignable claims and remanded the case for further proceedings on the merits of the unpaid-rent claim.
No dollar figure stated
Nov 9, 2026
Appellate Court of Illinois, First District
Zoning & Land Use
Verified Update
Ruling Issued
The Sixth Circuit affirmed summary judgment against a Michigan developer that sued Lyon Township under Section 1983 after permitting delays over a septic-system requirement derailed its build-to-suit industrial lease with Moba Americas.
The Sixth Circuit, in a published opinion by Circuit Judge Andre B. Mathis filed November 9, 2026, affirmed summary judgment against GSL Holdings, LLC, a Michigan developer that sued Lyon Township and its supervisor under 42 U.S.C. Section 1983 after permitting delays over an on-site septic system requirement prevented GSL from meeting a build-to-suit occupancy deadline, causing its tenant, Moba Americas, Inc., to terminate the lease. The court held the township's insistence on a completed septic permit and county lot-combination before issuing a building permit did not amount to an equal-protection, due-process, or First Amendment violation.
No dollar figure stated
Nov 9, 2026
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
Lending & Foreclosure
Verified Update
Ruling Issued
The Superior Court of Pennsylvania affirmed denial of a borrower's and guarantors' bid to strike a bank's confessed judgment on a $3.85 million commercial mortgage loan secured by a Philadelphia property on Spring Garden Street.
The Superior Court of Pennsylvania, in a memorandum opinion by Judge Maria C. McLaughlin filed November 9, 2026, affirmed a Philadelphia trial court's denial of a borrower's and its guarantors' petition to strike or open a confessed judgment entered against them on a $3.85 million commercial mortgage loan secured by a property at 827 Spring Garden Street in Philadelphia. The court found the trial court had technically erred by relying on a later evidentiary record to evaluate the motion to strike, but held the error harmless because the bank's complaint, on its own terms, adequately alleged default and the amount due.
$3.85 million
Nov 9, 2026
Superior Court of Pennsylvania
Zoning & Land Use
Verified Update
Ruling Issued
The U.S. Supreme Court denied certiorari, leaving in place a Sixth Circuit ruling that Pontiac, Michigan's permitting delays on a 26.5-acre cannabis redevelopment, which cost the developer $45 million in financing, were not a constitutional violation.
The U.S. Supreme Court, in its November 9, 2026 order list, denied certiorari in Rubicon Real Estate Holdings, LLC v. City of Pontiac, Michigan, leaving intact a published Sixth Circuit opinion that affirmed summary judgment for the city. Rubicon had sued Pontiac and its clerk in January 2023, alleging nearly four years of permitting delay on a planned $45 million medical-marijuana cultivation and processing redevelopment of a roughly 26.5-acre site caused its construction lender to withdraw financing, and seeking about $60 million in damages under Section 1983 and related constitutional theories.
$60 million sought
Nov 9, 2026
Supreme Court of the United States
Zoning & Land Use
Verified Update
Ruling Issued
West Virginia's Intermediate Court of Appeals affirmed dismissal of a shopping center owner's suit demanding a 57% business-tax rebate the City of Logan stopped paying in 2021 under a 1997 annexation incentive deal.
West Virginia's Intermediate Court of Appeals affirmed the dismissal of a breach-of-contract suit by Fountain Place, LLC against the City of Logan and the dissolved City of Logan Development Authority over a 1997 development agreement that had paid the shopping center's owner 57% of municipal business-and-occupancy taxes collected from its tenants in exchange for not opposing the property's annexation. The City stopped making the payments in May 2021, concluding it was no longer legally obligated, and the circuit court dismissed Fountain Place's 2023 suit on statutory-immunity and estoppel grounds, which the appellate court affirmed on November 6, 2026.
Ongoing 57% share of the shopping center's business-and-occupancy tax revenue (no total dollar figure stated)
Nov 6, 2026
Intermediate Court of Appeals of West Virginia
Environmental
Verified Update
Ruling Issued
An Illinois appeals court reinstated Chicago's denial of a large recycling facility permit for RMG affiliate General III, LLC on the Southeast Side, reversing a hearing officer's ruling that had cleared the applicant.
The Appellate Court of Illinois, First District, affirmed a Cook County circuit court order reinstating the Chicago Department of Public Health's February 2022 denial of a large recycling facility permit sought by General III, LLC, an 80%-owned affiliate of Reserve Management Group (RMG), for a site at 116th Street and Burley Avenue on the city's Southeast Side. The ruling reverses an administrative law judge's 2023 decision that had vacated the city's permit denial, finding the hearing officer committed legal error.
Not stated (permit dispute; no dollar figure in the opinion)
Nov 6, 2026
Appellate Court of Illinois, First District
Zoning & Land Use
Verified Update
Ruling Issued
The Eighth Circuit affirmed dismissal of a multifamily owner's Fourth and Fifth Amendment claims after Omaha closed its 84-unit Yale Park Apartments for code violations, even though the inspector's warrant application contained false statements.
The Eighth Circuit affirmed the dismissal of civil-rights claims brought by AB Realty, LLC, owner of the 84-unit Yale Park Apartment Complex in Omaha, Nebraska, against the city and its housing inspectors over the 2018 closure of the building for code violations. AB Realty alleged the inspection warrant was obtained using false statements and that the closure amounted to an unconstitutional taking and a due-process violation, but the court held the Fourth Amendment claim failed under the administrative-warrant standard and that the due-process and takings claims were inadequately pleaded.
No dollar figure stated
Nov 6, 2026
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
Zoning & Land Use
Verified Update
Ruling Issued
Pennsylvania's Commonwealth Court quashed Bethlehem Landfill Company's appeal over Lower Saucon Township's handling of its landfill-expansion rezoning request, finding the trial court's order was not a final, appealable judgment.
Bethlehem Landfill Company sought to rezone 275.7 acres in Lower Saucon Township from rural-agricultural to light-industrial to expand its landfill, and sued the township, its council, and individual officials alleging Sunshine Act violations and other claims after the township's handling of the rezoning request and a related 1994 deed restriction. On November 6, 2026, the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania quashed the landfill operator's appeal, holding the trial court's order was not a final, appealable judgment because it left some of the company's claims for further proceedings.
No dollar figure stated
Nov 6, 2026
Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania
Commercial Lease Disputes
Verified Update
Ruling Issued
An Alabama appeals court voided a circuit court judgment against a commercial tenant, ruling the case never should have left district court for a $53,000 unlawful-detainer dispute.
The Alabama Court of Civil Appeals voided a Montgomery Circuit Court judgment that had found commercial tenant Devosky Hood in default under a lease with landlord Barbara L. Smith over a disputed commercial lot, holding the Montgomery District Court had no authority to transfer the unlawful-detainer action to circuit court mid-case. Because the district court never adjudicated the claim before transferring it, the circuit court never acquired jurisdiction, making its May 2026 judgment void.
$53,000 in disputed back rent under a commercial lease
Nov 6, 2026
Court of Civil Appeals of Alabama
Eminent Domain
Verified Update
Ruling Issued
Ohio's Tenth District ruled a trial court wrongly held mortgagee Wiltshire Capital Partners' dismissed foreclosure case barred it, under res judicata, from any share of the City of Columbus's eminent domain payment on the same property.
The Tenth District Court of Appeals of Ohio reversed a Franklin County trial court that had barred mortgagee Wiltshire Capital Partners, LP from asserting any claim to proceeds in the City of Columbus's eminent domain case against Ohio Wholesale Auto Sales, LLC. The trial court had held that a 2018 dismissal of Wiltshire's separate foreclosure action on the same mortgage, entered for failure to prosecute, operated as res judicata and left Wiltshire with no interest to assert. The appellate court held a dismissal for failure to prosecute is not an adjudication on the merits and cannot support res judicata, and remanded the case for further proceedings.
$4,014 condemnation payment at issue; mortgage interest's share yet to be determined on remand
Nov 5, 2026
Ohio Court of Appeals, Tenth Appellate District (Franklin County)
Zoning & Land Use
Verified Update
Ruling Issued
Colorado's Court of Appeals affirmed Eagle County's roughly $122 million valuation of the Ritz-Carlton Bachelor Gulch's 54 fractional-ownership condominium units, rejecting Marriott subsidiary RCDC's bid for a fractional-ownership valuation discount.
The Colorado Court of Appeals on November 5, 2026 affirmed Eagle County's roughly $122 million property tax assessment of the 54 fractionally owned condominium units at the Ritz-Carlton, Bachelor Gulch hotel and spa in Avon, Colorado. The unpublished opinion rejected a challenge by Ritz-Carlton Development Co. (RCDC), a Marriott International subsidiary, which had argued the county improperly valued the units as conventional whole-ownership condominiums rather than applying a discount reflecting their division into 648 fractional interests of 21 days' use per year each.
$122M Eagle County tax assessment affirmed (assessor had raised the figure from $68.6M for the 2023 tax year)
Nov 5, 2026
Colorado Court of Appeals
Lending & Foreclosure
Verified Update
Filed
CommunityAmerica Credit Union sued in Cook County to foreclose a $236 million loan on Shaya Prager's 35 West Wacker Drive office tower after borrower Liberty 35 Wacker LLC defaulted.
CommunityAmerica Credit Union sued to foreclose on a roughly $220 million loan, now totaling $236 million with accrued interest and fees, secured by 35 West Wacker Drive, the 50-story, approximately 1.1-million-square-foot Chicago office tower also known as the Leo Burnett Building. The suit, filed in Cook County Circuit Court on November 5, 2026, names borrower Liberty 35 Wacker LLC, an affiliate of investor Shaya Prager's Opal Holdings, and seeks appointment of a receiver.
$236 million owed on an originally ~$220 million loan
Nov 5, 2026
Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois, Chancery Division
Premises Liability
Verified Update
Ruling Issued
Georgia's Court of Appeals revived premises-liability and punitive-damages claims against apartment owner SMRE Roswell SPE after an off-duty officer working as the complex's security wrongly raided an occupied unit using an outdated vacancy list.
The Georgia Court of Appeals on November 3, 2026 partially reversed summary judgment that had favored apartment owner SMRE Roswell SPE, LLC in a suit arising from a June 2022 incident in which an off-duty Roswell police officer, moonlighting as the Roswell Creek Apartments' part-time security guard, used an outdated vacancy list to mistakenly identify an occupied, rented unit as vacant, prompting fellow officers to force entry with weapons drawn and detain two residents. In three companion decisions, the court revived premises-liability and punitive-damages claims for two of the three plaintiffs while affirming dismissal of battery, trespass and contract-based negligence claims, and left intact the trial court's refusal to dismiss a false-imprisonment claim against the ownership.
Not stated; punitive damages and attorney-fee claims reinstated for two plaintiffs
Nov 3, 2026
Court of Appeals of Georgia
Lending & Foreclosure
Verified Update
Ruling Issued
The Sixth Circuit held lender Sinmier's deed-in-lieu settlement with defaulted borrower Vintro extinguished its mortgagee insurable interest, dooming its suit against the resort's insurers.
The Sixth Circuit affirmed summary judgment against commercial real estate lender Sinmier, LLC in its suit against the insurance broker and insurers of its defaulted borrower, Vintro Hotels and Resorts Ohio LLC, over storm and fire damage at the Maui Sands Resort and Waterpark in Sandusky, Ohio. The court held that Sinmier's own settlement agreement with Vintro, under which Vintro conveyed the resort by deed in lieu of foreclosure as full payment of its loan obligations, had already extinguished Sinmier's insurable mortgagee interest in the property, leaving it with no cognizable claim against the insurers.
$7 million original loan; Vintro's insurer settled the underlying property claim for $1,125,000; Sinmier separately recovered a $627,375 payment from Vintro's owner under the foreclosure settlement
Nov 2, 2026
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit (N.D. Ohio)
Zoning & Land Use
Verified Update
Ruling Issued
The Georgia Court of Appeals affirmed Bartow County's grant of a conditional use permit letting Rice Commercial Investments expand an industrial waste-processing operation next to developer Norhaven Partners' planned 97-unit townhome community.
The Court of Appeals of Georgia affirmed a trial court's rejection of developer Norhaven Partners, LLC's challenge to Bartow County's grant of a conditional use permit allowing neighboring landowner Rice Commercial Investments, Inc. to expand an industrial mulch-processing and recovered-materials operation adjacent to Norhaven's planned 97-unit townhome development. The court held the county's quasi-judicial decision was supported by the record and that Norhaven's procedural objections to the trial court's review did not warrant reversal.
Nov 2, 2026
Court of Appeals of Georgia
Zoning & Land Use
Verified Update
Pending
FERC rejected ComEd's attempt to cancel the transmission agreement behind Hillwood's $20B Joliet data center over a disputed $1 credit filing, leaving the underlying contract fight to a federal judge in Chicago.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on September 22, 2026 rejected Commonwealth Edison Company's notice seeking to cancel the transmission security agreement behind PowerHouse Hillwood Holding LLC's roughly $20 billion, 1.8-gigawatt Joliet Technology Center data center campus, after PowerHouse Hillwood satisfied the agreement's initial credit support term with a $1 letter of credit that ComEd argued was inadequate. FERC declined to rule on the underlying contract dispute itself, leaving it to litigation already pending in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.
$20 billion data center campus; disputed $1 letter of credit
Nov 2, 2026
U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois
Zoning & Land Use
Verified Update
Filed
A Botetourt County, Virginia landowner sued the county, its Board of Supervisors and Google subsidiary Helio Capital LLC, alleging the board approved a $14 million data center agreement in closed session without disclosing its terms.
A Botetourt County, Virginia landowner filed a petition for a writ of mandamus and injunctive relief in Botetourt County Circuit Court on November 2, 2026, seeking to void the county's economic-development performance agreement with Helio Capital LLC, a Google subsidiary, that cleared the way for a data center campus at the Botetourt Center at Greenfield business park. The petition alleges the Board of Supervisors violated Virginia's Freedom of Information Act by discussing and effectively agreeing to the terms of the performance agreement in closed session on June 24, 2025, then approving it in open session without disclosing its substance.
$14 million land purchase and tax agreement under challenge
Nov 2, 2026
Botetourt County Circuit Court, Virginia
Lending & Foreclosure
Verified Update
Ruling Issued
A Goldman Sachs-affiliated CMBS trust took title to Pittsburgh's historic Chamber of Commerce Building after its $1.4 million credit bid drew no competing bidders at a November 2 sheriff's sale.
A Goldman Sachs-affiliated CMBS trust foreclosed on 411 Seventh Avenue in downtown Pittsburgh, the historic Chamber of Commerce Building, after owner 411 Seventh Avenue Associates LP defaulted on its mortgage. At the November 2, 2026 Allegheny County sheriff's sale, the trust's $1.4 million opening credit bid drew no competing bidders, and the trust took title to the roughly 16-story office tower, according to a Pittsburgh Business Times report.
$1.4M winning credit bid; no competing bidders
Nov 2, 2026
Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas, Pennsylvania
Eminent Domain
Verified Update
Ruling Issued
Kentucky's Court of Appeals affirmed dismissal of Lampton Securities' reverse condemnation suit over an Ohio River floodplain tract, holding the claim wasn't ripe because Lampton never sought a variance from the floodplain board.
Lampton Securities Partnership, LLP sued Louisville-Jefferson County Metro Government and the Louisville and Jefferson County Metropolitan Sewer District for reverse (inverse) condemnation, alleging that 1997 floodplain ordinances stripped all economically beneficial use from a roughly two-acre Ohio River tract it bought for $800,000 in 1998. On October 30, 2026, the Kentucky Court of Appeals affirmed summary judgment for the government defendants, holding that Lampton's claim was not ripe because it never applied to the Metro Sewer District's Floodplain Board for a variance -- relief the ordinance made available and that the Board had granted to other landowners.
Reverse condemnation claim over a 2-acre tract Lampton bought for $800,000 in 1998; the opinion states no damages figure sought
Oct 30, 2026
Court of Appeals of Kentucky
Zoning & Land Use
Verified Update
Ruling Issued
New Jersey's Appellate Division affirmed a zoning board's approval letting a historic Point Pleasant Beach building be converted into a restaurant, spa, and boutique hotel, rejecting a neighboring owner's repeat variance challenge.
The Appellate Division of New Jersey's Superior Court affirmed a trial court's dismissal of a neighboring commercial property owner's prerogative-writs challenge to use variances the Point Pleasant Beach Zoning Board of Adjustment granted for a mixed-use redevelopment of the historic Gottlieb Building. The Board had unanimously approved a restaurant and spa on the ground floor and a previously approved boutique hotel use on the second floor; objector 637 Arnold, LLC argued the public notice was deficient and the Board misapplied New Jersey's variance standards, but the per curiam panel found no basis to disturb the trial court's reasoning and affirmed.
no damages at issue; dispute over use variances for a mixed hotel/restaurant/spa redevelopment of a historic downtown building
Oct 30, 2026
Superior Court of New Jersey, Appellate Division
Lending & Foreclosure
Verified Update
Ruling Issued
New Jersey's Tax Court ruled the Freeze Act bars East Rutherford from raising the American Dream Mall's assessment back up for 2026-27, rejecting the bondholder trustee's bid to defeat the freeze.
The New Jersey Tax Court ruled that the state's Freeze Act bars the Borough of East Rutherford from raising the American Dream Mall's property assessment for tax years 2026 and 2027 above the $1,653,960,000 figure a prior judgment set after a July 2025 trial. The Borough had reassessed the mall to $1,899,992,100 for 2026, and the mall's own bondholder trustee, US Bank and Trust Company, joined the Borough in opposing the freeze as amicus curiae.
$1.65 billion assessment frozen; Borough sought to raise it to $1.9 billion
Oct 30, 2026
New Jersey Tax Court
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