The Expo Line extension connecting downtown Los Angeles to Santa Monica, set to open May 20, has been a boon for the developers who snapped up real estate adjacent to the tracks.

The Expo Line has more than 30,000 daily boardings, and that number is projected to increase more than twofold to 63,998 by 2030, according to Metro’s environmental impact report.

That projected increase has helped property values along the extension, which runs from Culver City along the old Pacific Electric streetcar line over to Colorado Avenue and Fourth Street in Santa Monica, tick up. In Santa Monica, the average price per square foot for land hit $774 at the end of 2015, up from an average of $668 in 2013, according to data from Colliers International.

“In terms of driving demand, anything that is along the rail line has increased in value,” said Nico Vilgiate, an executive vice president at Colliers in downtown Los Angeles.

It hasn’t all been smooth sailing, however. The old Paper Mate building, which sits adjacent to the Expo Line’s new Bergamot Station at 26th Street and Olympic Boulevard, was set to be replaced with a mixed-use structure by Houston-based developers Hines. However, the Santa Monica City Council quashed the project in early 2014 as community concerns mounted. Rebuffed, Hines sold the site that year to Lincoln Property Co. and Clarion Partners for about $113 million. The owners are turning the existing structure into a 210,000-square-foot creative office space known as the Pen Factory.

There were also a few sticking spots with the purchase of properties needed to build the Expo Line extension. Eight eminent domain cases were filed in conjunction with the project when property owners refused Metro offers of compensation for their land.

Bergamot Station again served as the focal point of one of the more intense legal battles, as the owner of an adjacent art gallery valued his land and damages at more than $10.1 million, plus costs, interest, and attorneys’ fees. That claim was ultimately knocked down to $125,000 in a settlement. Only one of the eminent domain cases went to trial, which involved a Wendy’s on Venice Boulevard in Culver City. Metro’s economic assessment of the land was ultimately adopted in the verdict.

David Graeler, a partner at Nossaman in downtown Los Angeles who handled all eminent domain cases for Metro relating to the Expo Line extension, said Metro was negotiated with property owners in good faith.

“A lot of the rail agencies are very fair to property owners and try to avoid eminent domain cases,” he said. “Real negotiations occur that often lead to deals.”