Montville collects overdue tax bill
Owner of more than 300 acres near Thames River paid delinquent $1.34 million earlier this week
Montville — The town this week received a long delinquent property tax payment totaling more than $1 million, officials said Thursday.
Town officials said the owner of more than 300 acres between Route 32 and the Thames River paid $1.34 million in delinquent bills on Monday. The taxes have been due since 2010.
The property was the subject of lawsuits after plans fell through almost a decade ago for condominiums and a resort by Mohegan Hill Development LLC, a Tarragon Corporation holding company. The land includes dozens of vacant buildings along Massapeag Side Road, Derry Hill Road and Driscoll Drive.
Finance Committee Chairman Wills Pike said the payment was part of a wave of recent incoming back taxes after the town sent out foreclosure notices and the committee kicked up discussion of tougher tax collection policies.
“We’re trying to decrease our debt and increase our revenue stream and let people know we’re trying to do what’s in the best interest of the community,” he said. “We’re serious about making it right for the people of Montville.”
Asked about the timing of the payment, Mayor Ron McDaniel said it was his understanding the owner, CT Financial Partners LLC, transferred the property to Mohegan Hill Development LLC, the Tarragon subsidiary. He said he was unaware of their potential plans.
“Right now we’re just making sure the check clears and we’ll go from there,” said McDaniel, who noted the payment included substantial interest and overdue water and sewer bills. “It’s nice to be able to start again with a clean slate and move forward.”
The tax collector, Jerl Casey, was not immediately available Thursday afternoon.
Pike noted the payment was “money owed to us” and didn’t amount to “a fresh cash flow.”
He and McDaniel said the money would go into the general fund. Asked about a potential impact on the 2018-19 budget, McDaniel said the Town Council “is certainly able to use that to offset anything if they so choose.”
The current proposed budget could increase the town’s tax rate by 2.23 mills, about a $111 hike on a property assessed at $50,000.
In 2005, Tarragon, operating through local holding companies, planned a hotel, an 18-hole golf course, luxury condominiums, upscale stores and a marina for the prime location. The company planned to work with the Mohegan Tribe, whose land abuts the property, but the crash in the housing
market killed the plan and litigation involving lenders and owners ensued.
A voicemail left with Tarragon was not immediately responded to. An employee of CT Financial Partners, a Glastonbury-based financial planning firm, said it was not connected to the LLC of the same name and had nothing to do with the Montville property.
The state lists CT Financial Partners LLC’s principal as Donna Lewis Greene in Boston; no phone listing for her could be found.
The Day last year cited Joel Greene as a principal for CT Financial Partners LLC. In 2016, Greene and CT Financial Partners LLC were sued by MH investors LLC and West Hartford law firm Weinstein & Wisser for allegedly defaulting on a $2 million mortgage on the property signed in 2013. Greene and CT Financial Partners LLC countersued for slander and breach of fiduciary duty, claiming the mortgage, to Weinstein and Wisser, was signed under duress.
Superior Court records show MH Investors LLC and Weinstein & Wisser withdrew their lawsuit “as to all defendants without costs to any party” on Thursday.
A message left Thursday evening with attorney Kerry Wisser, who signed the document withdrawing the lawsuit, was not immediately returned.
Bruce Fischman, a principal of MH Investors LLC and president of Farmington-based Cornerstone Properties, was not immediately available, his office said Thursday night.
A message left Thursday evening with attorney John Beck — whose Hartford firm Siegel, O’Connor, O’Donnell & Beck is listed as the business address for both CT Financial Partners LLC and Mohegan Hill Development LLC — was not immediately returned.