Wheaton developer wants assessments slashed

Article updated: 3/29/2012 8:00 PM

Milton Township and Wheaton are opposing a developers effort to have a retail/office building in downtown reassessed. The five-story structure at 120 E. Liberty Drive generates hundreds of thousands of dollars annually for a special taxing district in Wheaton.

Bev Horne | Staff Photographer

A developer who received more than $8 million in assistance from Wheaton to construct a retail/office building in the citys downtown claims the structure has lost more than half its value since opening in 2008.

But the Milton Township assessors office and Wheaton legally are opposing a property value reassessment being sought by Wheaton Property Partners. They insist the five-story building at 120 E. Liberty Drive still is worth what it cost to build at least $25 million.

Starting next month, the states property tax appeal board will have the first in a series of hearings to determine which side is right. If Wheaton Property Partners prevails in its effort to get its property taxes reduced, Wheaton could lose about $1 million for a special taxing district where the building is.

What they (Wheaton Property Partners) are doing is theyre trying to get the taxpayers of Wheaton to subsidize their new building, Milton Township Assessor Bob Earl said.

But Donald Hemmesch, the attorney representing Wheaton Property Partners, said no one could have anticipated the economic downturn that happened after the city inked a deal that gave his client roughly $8.2 million worth of incentives for the project, including about $2.4 million in land and $5.8 million to build a city-owned parking garage on the site.

Those incentives are being paid for by revenue generated by Wheatons second downtown tax increment financing district, which was created in 1999.

In a TIF district, property tax payments to local governments are frozen for up to 23 years. A municipality can improve land within the district and as the property appreciates and more tax money is paid, the extra cash goes into a special fund used to help pay off the cost of helping to develop and improve the area.

Continued here:
Wheaton developer wants assessments slashed