Date: Fri 26-Jul-1996

Publication: Bee

Author: KAAREN

Quick Words:

Sand-Hill-Plaza-assessment

Full Text:

Sand Hill Plaza Owners Take Assessment Dispute To Court

B Y K AAREN V ALENTA

The new owners of Sand Hill Plaza have filed an appeal in Danbury Superior

Court disputing the shopping center's new local property tax assessment.

The appeal, which requires representatives of the town to appear in Danbury

Superior Court on August 20, was filed by a Bridgeport law firm representing

D.D. Newtown Partners Limited Partnership, a real estate investment company

chartered in the state of Delaware, and the Hutensky Group LLC, a Hartford

company, which manages Sand Hill Plaza for the new owners.

The appeal said the owners, through their agents, asked the Board of

Assessment Appeals of the town of Newtown to reduce the assessment but the

board made no change.

The property was purchased by D.D. Newtown Partners Limited Partnership

through its financial arm, DRA Investors of Manhattan, from the Sand Hill

Limited Partnership in December 1995 for $20 million.

The new assessment is based on the market value of the property as of October

1, 1995. Lesher-Glendinning Municipal Services, the real estate appraisal

company hired by the town to conduct the revaluation, determined the market

value of Sand Hill Plaza to be $19.9 million.

The property tax assessment is computed using 70 percent of the market value,

in this case $13.9 million. Tax Collector Carol Mahoney said the plaza owners

paid $207,440 in property taxes last year; this year the tax bill is $348,467,

an increase of nearly 68 percent.

When the shopping center was built in 1990 it was assessed at $6,473,250. This

figure is 70 percent of $9.2 million - what the fair market value would have

been if the shopping center had existed in October 1985 when the previous

townwide revaluation was done.

Based on the revaluation figures, the market value of the property increased

about 115 percent over the 10-year period. The average increase for commercial

property was less than 40 percent in the revaluation.

Tax Assessor Mark DeVestern said he cannot comment on matters involving

litigation. But he pointed out that the $20 million selling price of the

shopping center was almost exactly the same as the $19.9 million appraised

market value.

But Martin L. McCann of Zeldes, Needle & Cooper, the Bridgeport law firm

representing the new owners, said the assessment was "manifestly excessive and

could not have been arrived at except by disregarding the statutes for

determining the valuation of the property." He claimed the assessment was

"grossly excessive, disproportionate and unlawful."

The first installment of $174,233 in 1996 property taxes for Sand Hill Plaza

was due July 1. The bill has not been paid yet, according to the both the

appeal filed in Superior Court and the tax collector.

Mrs Mahoney said the tax must be paid by August 1. If it is not, there is an

immediate penalty of $5,227. After August 31, the penalty is $2,613 per month,

based on state law which sets the penalty at 1« percent per month.

The appeal is the first to be filed against the town as a result of the

revaluation.

When the townwide appraisals were completed last winter, 9,998 properties

(7,411 dwellings, 180 commercial buildings and 36 industrial buildings) were

notified of their new assessments and each had the opportunity to participate

in an informal hearing with the reval company. About 700 asked for the

informal hearings. The next step, for unresolved cases, was a formal hearing

before the Board of Assessment Appeals. The board considered nearly 400

property assessments, making changes in 325 of them. Sixty-nine were not

changed. Property owners have until the end of August to appeal to the

Superior Court.

Mr DeVestern said more appeals are anticipated and are normal in a revaluation

year. The amount of appeals have been increasing in towns throughout the state

over the last 10 years, partly because of the economic climate and partly

because society has become more litigious.