Kelo’s concept of “useful to the community” used to be, and still SHOULD be unconstitutional. It’s the biggest SCOTUS screwup I know of between Roe and Roberts. And Framers certainly didn’t intend what Trump and friends tried to pull in Atlantic City. My hypothetical comparison for the Donald would be this: suppose someone richer and more powerful than him, such as Bloomberg, wanted to tear down Trump Tower for a cab stand and asked DeBlasio to ED it for him. Should they be able to trump the Donald’s wishes on the subject or must they accept either Donald’s denial or his price?
That’s not a very good analogy. NO case can be made for the cab stand being more beneficial to the community.
As for price, it seems to me that if the Government (Buyer) and the property owner cannot come to agreement, then the disagreement needs to go to some sort of arbitration, with some built-in protections for both sides, and public, very public, oversight.
(I considered a much longer discussion of possible arbitration processes and guidelines, but realized I’d be up until dawn throwing out suggestions!)