Rug Mill, questions about

[novillero]

There was a tangential mention on another thread in another folder about the Rug Mill. I wanted to look up the owners on the County Website, and found something I was not looking for.

If anyone could explain, I'd be interested to hear it. I'm confused and I think you need to read my entire post before answering, because I probably didn't phrase everything well. You need to read it all before answering.

The thrust of my confusion is the tax assessment. As you are aware, property is assessed by the land itself, then a dollar amount is assessed to the structures on the land.

The Rug Mill - 40 Jackson Street is assessed with no dollar amount to the structure. In 2007 and 2008, the land was assessed at $1.25 million, but the structure has no assessed value. The total taxes is $25,500.

Issue #1. Why is there no assessment for the building? (And, by the way, why is it listed as a "crematory?")

Issue #2, the other years for tax assessment that are shown are for 2006 and 2005. Again, no structural assessment. But the thing that has my head scratching is that the land assessment was reduced fro 4.06 million to 1.25 million. Why the reduction? Was that part of the reassessment? How could that be?

Issue # 3. There are 2 different listings for the Rug Mill at 40 Jackson Street on the County Website. The second listing assesses the land exactly as listed above. The property description is no longer crematory, but "urban renewal." Anyway, why is there a second listing for this same exact property?

Issue # 4. And another difference between the 2 listings on teh county website is that the second listing has an assessed value of the structure - for 2005 through present year - at $17,875,700. But there is no taxes assessed. Why no taxes?

This should be a good link for the site to search:
oprs.co.monmouth.nj.us/Oprs/taxboard/HeadFrame.aspx?idx=mod

[ka19]

Great questions.

You will notice that the statute given for the tax status of the property is N.J.S.A. 40A:21-1 et seq. This statute is the "Five-Year Exemption and Abatement Law."

Without knowing the details of the deal, the property qualified as an area in need of rehabilitation.

So the developer looking to rehabilitate the property strikes a deal with the town in the form of a Developer's Agreement, as a result of which, there is a 5-year diminishing tax abatement. This tax abatement helps subsidize the rehabilitation of the area identified as an area in need, which in turn benefits the town.

Many times there is also what is known as a payment in lieu of taxes, or PILOT, agreement. The town is most likely recouping monies...and their agreements with the property owner, I believe, are public record, and you should have the right to access to them for your review.

While this does not directly answer all of your questions, I think it provides some useful background information as to why the online public record appears to be so atypical.

[admin]

Apr 12, 2008 6:03:04 GMT -5 wlisa54 said:

This is a great question to bring up at a council meeting.

I remember only a few developers were interested, but deals always fell through.

I don't know about the assessments, only what I see with my eyes.

The property was a dump for decades. There was a fire caused by squatters (not illegal aliens). There was asbestos and other environmental issues.

And now people live there. Many seniors. What a turnaround.

The rug mill raises a lot of good questions, but not ones for a council meeting. For starters, why is it being referred to as the "Drug Mill" ?


And is this the best that could have been done with the property?

I was against the plan for the rug mill many years ago, and I think I was right for that. Time has told. Predictably, it has degraded into an embarrassment. Our town did not need it. We would have been better off leveling it and putting in a nice recreation area.

[novillero]

Thanks for the responses.

I do note that I researched the past News Transcript articles and see that we are paying $30,000 per year to rent the police headquarters.
newstranscript.gmnews.com/news/2003/0312/Front_page/015.html

[admin]

Apr 12, 2008 18:00:33 GMT -5 novillero said:

Thanks for the responses.

I do note that I researched the past News Transcript articles and see that we are paying $30,000 per year to rent the police headquarters.
newstranscript.gmnews.com/news/2003/0312/Front_page/015.html

We are paying rent for the police head quarters?!! The building that does not pay property taxes is charging us rent?!!

That ain't right!!! They should be paying the town to put the police there.

[novillero]

Wlisa, do you have an answer as to why the assessment went down?

Or why the place is listed as a crematory? (was that a prior use, a current use?)

Can you confirm that the Rug Mill is part of a PILOT program, and if so, what the arrangement is?

[admin]

I was in Wegmans the other day ( a much higher caliber of people who are very intelligent) and I overheard a conversation about the rug mill. The borough does receive over 200,000 dollars a year in taxes from the rug mill.


In other words, I got this from an anonymous source that I consider very credible.

[novillero]

$200,000. That's good to hear. I assume that this is the PILOT program and not taxes though, right? (what difference that makes, I'd be interested to learn too)

But you did hear that it was "taxes" at Wegmans. If it was Foodtown, I would think that this information was not credible, but Wegmans... hmmm... I have to lean towards it really being taxes then.

I still have those other questions out there if anyone knows...

[admin]

Apr 15, 2008 7:33:04 GMT -5 novillero said:

$200,000. That's good to hear. I assume that this is the PILOT program and not taxes though, right? (what difference that makes, I'd be interested to learn too)

But you did hear that it was "taxes" at Wegmans. If it was Foodtown, I would think that this information was not credible, but Wegmans... hmmm... I have to lean towards it really being taxes then.

I still have those other questions out there if anyone knows...

Like you I have questions too. I certainly do not know a lot about what the difference between PILOT and tax money is. Can they be used differently for example? Is there a big difference in what is collected if the building was either or?

Anyway, I was specifically told that the money raised is taxes. Being that this did not come from that lowly Foodtown crowd, I have no reason to not believe the person.