Condemnation—Value of Property Must Be Determined as of the Vesting Date Regardless of Effect of COVID-19 Pandemic—Owners Argued That Valuing the Property at the Time When the Pandemic "Lowered the Value of Real Estate in New York City Unjustly Permits Amtrak To Lock In a Discount to the Value of the Property Based On the COVID-19 Pandemic at the Property Owner's Expense"—Court Acknowledged That the Pandemic "Was, In a Lay Sense, an Exceptional Circumstance In the Life of (NYC) and (NYS), the United States and the World. But It Was Not, In a Legal Sense, an 'Exceptional Circumstance' Relative To Determining the Market Value of…Property in (NYC)"—Market Experienced "Shocks" But There "Was a Free Market for Real Estate" In NYC On the Vesting Date—Court Distinguished Great Depression Cases

The plaintiff (Amtrak) acquired property pursuant to its powers of eminent domain pursuant to 49 U.S.C. §24311(a)(1).

The salient issue was "whether the calculation of just compensation should consider the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the New York real estate market as of the vesting date."