A multi-year tax appeal settled for the commercial and hotel space at Carriage City Plaza yielded a combined refund of $85,000, a reduction of about 12.5 percent of its tax bill over the four disputed years.
City Council unanimously approved a resolution (AR-164-17) authorizing the tax appeal settlement at its combined regular/conference meeting on July 10.
The tax appeal settlement covered the years 2013 through 2016. Here’s a breakdown of the settlement by year in a spreadsheet if you’re interested in checking my math.
The largest reductions and refunds were in the earlier years, as much as 21 percent or about $25,000 in 2013 on the hotel space (Block 316, Lot 3.02, C102), which occupies the first three floors of the complex and has been vacant since Hotel Indigo left four years ago.
A new hotel is expected to take over occupancy later this year and improvements to the property were presented to the homeowners association late last year.
A reduction of almost 18 percent was approved for 2014, followed by 11.5 percent in 2015 and 2016. The overall tax assessment of $1.962 million — which normally would have yielded taxes of $125,000 in the most recent year — was reduced to $1.736 million for 2015 and 2016, for a tax bill of about $111,000 annually.
The commercial space on the ground floor (Block 316, Lot 3.02, C101) is assessed for less and saw smaller reductions in its assessments and taxes. Again, the largest cuts were in the early years, almost 12 percent in 2013, from an assessment of $816,700 to $721,420, reducing the tax bill from almost $50,000 to about $43,600. That was followed by an almost 8 percent cut in 2014 but less than 1 percent in both 2015 and 2016 to a current assessment of about $810,460 for 2016.
80 E Milton Ave, LLC, purchased the retail and hotel property at 1 Carriage City Plaza after the 16-story complex went into foreclosure in 2010, in addition to about 160 individual condominiums. About 60 individual condos were sold privately in the years before foreclosure as that was the original plan for the development.
Here’s another look at the assessments by year in the settlement:
Commercial space assessment (Block 316, Lot 3.02, C101)
- 2013 – $816,700 to $721,420
- 2014 – $816,700 to $752,920
- 2015 – $816,700 to $810,460
- 2016 – $816,700 to $810,460
Hotel space assessment (Block 316, Lot 3.02, C102)
- 2013 – $1,962,200 to $1,545,900
- 2014 – $1,962,200 to $1,613,400
- 2015 – $1,962,200 to $1,736,700
- 2016 – $1,962,200 to $1,736,700
The total combined tax refund over the four years is $85,977.80, broken down as follows:
- 2013 – $30,936.45
- 2014 – $25,596.46
- 2015 – $14,244.84
- 2016 – $14,805.87