$1.4M set aside for possible mall tax refund
The town plans to put $1.43 million in a reserve account to cover the tax refund it would have to pay if a judge reduces the property assessment of Hudson Valley Mall.
Ulster Supervisor James Quigley said the money is coming from $2 million worth of fund balances the town has accumulated and that he’d like to set aside an additional $350,000 to mitigate any impact from a possible reduction of the mall’s fiscal 2018 assessment.
The mall’s former owner, PCK Development of Liverpool, N.Y., filed a lawsuit last year seeking to have the property’s assessment reduced from $66 million to $40 million for the 2015 tax year. Georgiabased Hull Property Group bought the mall for $8.1 million this past January and is seeking to use the purchase price as the basis for property’s 2016 assessment.
Quigley said appraisals of the property, at 1300 Ulster Ave., were submitted to the court about a month ago.
“[Attorneys] are now analyzing those appraisals,” he said. “We have a meeting coming up where we’re going to be discussing, between the Town Board and the town attorney handling this case, the facts as presented in the appraisals and try to discuss our strategy.”
Quigley said Hull Property Group has tried to reach an assessment settlement.
“They have repeatedly tried to enter into negotiations outside of the courtroom, and I [wouldn’t] do that because of the fact that I didn’t have appraisal documents to back up any decision that he town might make,” the supervisor said. “Now that the appraisals have been completed, they’re being analyzed and we have factual information from outside experts as to what they’re opinion of the values are.”
Hull officials said in January that they would not make any significant changes to the mall until the assessment case is settled, though town officials announced in late January that Health Quest wants to convert the former Macy’s department store at the mall into medical offices.
Hull initially told Ulster officials it planned to spend $10 million on improvements to the mall.
The mall, which has two vacant anchor store locations and many smaller vacancies, was placed in receivership last year after PCK defaulted on almost $50 million in debt related to the Ulster property. The court-appointed receiver then was given permission by the judge in the debt matter to put the mall up for sale.
Concerns about the mall’s devaluation come as the town of Ulster also is facing an assessment fight with the owner of the nearby TechCity business complex, a former IBM plant. TechCity wants its current $27.8 million assessment reduced after already winning a recent deep cut from $43.9 million.