Gossips has known for a while that The Wick was for sale. It seems Redburn Development, the group that transformed an old industrial building on Cross Street into a boutique hotel, has decided that owning a hotel is not their forte. This morning, at the meeting of the Hudson Industrial Development Agency (IDA), Mike Tucker reported that there is a potential buyer for The Wick who would like to assume the remaining four years of the hotel's PILOT (payment in lieu of taxes) agreement.
Under the terms of the PILOT agreement, which was approved in June 2016 and commenced in January 2018, the tax payment in Year 1 was $20,000, in Year 2 was $25,000, and beginning in Year 3 increases by $9,375 every year until it reaches $100,000 in Year 10 and then expires.
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I'd like to pay lower taxes myself, so I don't hold it against a would-be buyer to seek the same. I do, however, hope that the Hudson IDA will actually dig in to any claim of need. If the buyer is for real, they would have to expect to hold the property for longer than 4 years. If they're just looking to be caretaker-owners and then flip it -- well, then, why provide what amounts to essentially a profit margin increase at the expense of the community?
ReplyDeleteJohn, how many buildings in Hudson are enjoying tax free status that generate no tax dollars and never will. the buyer is taking a risk in the first place on an operation that pay taxes, and more importantly generates a lot in sales taxes for the City and the County. The key is sales tax revenues and visitors to locally owned businesses.
DeleteWhat is the law regarding PILOTs? Are they transferrable? If not, is the PILOT a condition for the sale? Seems to me, as Mr. Friedman points out, that we would all like our taxes lowered but that is only made available to those that don't really need it. If the buyer doesn't get the PILOT will they walk?
ReplyDeleteA PILOT may be the least of the buyers problems. There is insufficient parking for the business. They currently lease space from the owner of the KAZ property. As the KAZ site is developed that will become problematic.
ReplyDelete