From NBC40

SOMERS POINT–Dozens of people came out in the rain this afternoon to protest for The Pearl. The popular Somers Point restaurant could soon shut it’s doors for good due to eminent domain.

“Save the Pearl! Save the Pearl!” Armed with signs, loyal customers of The Pearl Restaurant and Bar make a last ditch effort to try and save the Somers Point eatery from eminent domain. “It’s one of probably, the best places in Somers Point to hang out,” said Lauren Pasternak.

“It’s hard when this is your livelihood and you have to lose it,” said long-time customer Liz Phillippy, “and it’s out of your control.”

It’s a situation that’s become a reality for Pearl Lin, the owner and operator of the restaurant, which she’s poured her heart into over the past 27 years. “I do everything,” said Lin, “I do cleaning, I do waitressing, I do bar, I do the packaged goods, I do cooking, too. I do everything I can do, 16 to 18 hours a day, seven days a week, never stop.”

But, Lin may have no choice but to stop, thanks to the $400 million Somers Point-Ocean City causeway project, that has the NJ DOT wanting her land. “They put me on eminent domain and they offer me a very low price,” said Lin, “not even 1/3 of the market, so I’m really upset.”

Lin says she was offered $1.6 million for her property, which isn’t much more than what she and her husband say they purchased it for more than a quarter-of-a-century ago. Several other private properties have been taken over by the state for the project and Lin feels they state isn’t negotiating in good faith. “It’s not fair,” she said, “I’m very upset and I just think I want to keep it here. I don’t want to go anywhere.”

Lin said she was and is willing to cooperate and compromise, saying she’d even consider giving the state part of her one-acre property, but says despite her efforts, she will likely lose the battle to keep her restaurant, and could see it close by the end of the year. “I never, ever think this could happen,” said Lin.

That’s why her loyal customers and neighbors say they’re willing to fight to help keep The Pearl up and running.

A spokesperson for the New Jersey Department of Transportation said the acquisition of the property is still in litigation and that they do not comment on matters in litigation. Several other businesses in Somers Point and Ocean City are also still negotiating sales with the state.

From Press of Atlantic City

SOMERS POINT – After more than a quarter-century in business, Pearl Lin knows she will eventually lose her restaurant to make way for the $400 million Somers Point-Ocean City causeway project, one of the most expensive and ambitious transportation projects in New Jersey.

Lin, 62, said she is willing to make way. As long she is paid what she believes is a fair price.

She says the state has offered her $1.6 million, a figure she says is woefully inadequate.

“It’s the perfect location,” said Lin, co-owner and namesake of the Chinese restaurant. “Everybody drives past here from Ocean City … and we have a beautiful view of the water across the street.”

The path that takes motorists past Lin’s restaurant is called the Route 52 causeway, a nearly three-mile stretch that starts at Route 9 in Somers Point and ends in Ocean City. The causeway project was built in 1933 and includes four bridges, two of them drawbridges. The state Department of Transportation is rebuilding the causeway, replacing the two drawbridges with elevated, fixed spans, building a new Ocean City Welcome Center and replacing the Somers Point traffic circle with lights. The fixed spans will reach over Ship Channel and Beach Thorofare. The new causeway will have 12-foot lanes and 8-foot shoulders. A concrete barrier will separate northbound and southbound traffic.

But to accomplish all those improvements, the state must take over a handful of privately owned properties.

The DOT seized the Tackle Direct in Ocean City in January and the Pearl Restaurant in Somers Point in April, at least on paper.

Since then, the state and the building owners have been negotiating their purchase prices.

“It’s not fair. It’s not fair,” Lin said tearfully. “I was willing to work with them. I went to all the meetings. But at the last minute, they tell me the plans can’t change and that they can just take my property if I don’t go agree to it. I can see something like this happening in China, but America? Not here.”

DOT spokesman Timothy Greeley said in an e-mail that he could not comment on the agency’s use of eminent domain since the negotiations were ongoing and, in the case of Lin, contentious.

Lin emigrated from China to the United States. In 1983, she and her husband, Steve, opened the Pearl Restaurant on the traffic circle.

The state plans to replace this busy roundabout with traffic lights as part of the causeway project.

The state took ownership of the restaurant in April, when Lin started paying rent to the state.

According to the Somers Point tax office, the state is delinquent on its third-quarter taxes of $6,973.23. An official there said the state is responsible for those taxes through the end of 2009. But Ocean City Tax Collector Gary Hink said the state is not obligated to pay local taxes on the properties it acquired.

Along with Tackle Direct, the state seized a nearby Ocean City property at 101 Palen Ave. assessed at $487,500 and owned by Nelson Rutledge.

Tackle Direct owner Thomas Gill declined to comment Thursday, saying he was still negotiating the sale with the state. He moved his 30-employee fishing-tackle business over the bridge to Somers Point.

Lin, who has known about the causeway project since 2003, said she turned down a $4.1 million offer in 2006. She said the DOT reassured her at the time that it would work around her restaurant so she could keep her business. She offered to let the state encroach on her one-acre property, if necessary.

“We could have moved our building back and changed our entrance to the side. We would have gone from having five entrances to our parking lot to two or three, but I was willing to do that,” she said. “But they lied to me. They lied when they said there was a chance. Because there was no chance.”

The state has since offered Lin $1.6 million for her property, assessed in 2009 at $678,000. She rejected the latest offer.

“That’s not even half of what it would cost me to relocate,” said Lin, adding she has done extensive renovations on her restaurant/packaged goods store.

“We’ve tried looking for places to relocate, but there’s nothing that matches what we have here,” she said.

Lin said the state’s offer for her property compared poorly with the state’s offers for Ocean City properties.

The owners of a 3,000-square-foot vacant lot in Ocean City were offered $1.05 million, she said. She said Tackle Direct was offered and turned down $2.1 million.

“They don’t have the good location that we have and they are offered more money? How can that be?” she asked. “I think because I don’t speak good English they think that they can kick me around.”