It appears that the Bill de Blasio family was so busy running around campaigning for mayor that they forgot to pay their property tax bill.
The family’s quarterly payment of $660.26 for their Brooklyn home was not processed until Oct. 22, leading to an extra charge of $3.43 and a total of $ 663.69, according to Dept. of Finance records.
The slight blip in payments can be laughed off as an “oops” by a really busy family.
But taxpayers should be wondering why a home the city says has a market value of over $1.18 million has an assessed value of merely $15,823 and is only paying $2,641 this year after a state school-tax STAR exemption of $297.
That’s no joke when you think about the costs of city services and the tax bills paid by others with similarly valued homes and condos.
A condominium unit that sold a few days ago on the Lower East Side of Manhattan for $1.02 million has a market value of $165,606, but an assessed billable value of $74,523. The owner there will pay $2,808 this year due to its 421a abatement, and in a few years, will paying at least $9,823 per year — an amount de Blasio may never reach under the current screwy system.
According to Finance, the market value is multiplied by 6 percent to get an assessed value. Since one-to-three family homes are protected from paying their fair share of the tax burden by legislators, to ensure money keeps flowing into the coffers, Finance almost automatically raises the assessed values of homes each year.
But because that raise is also capped at 6 percent each year, with a total of 20 percent every five years, even if the market value doubled, Finance says it would take 18 years for the assessed value to reach 6 percent of the market value.
For fiscal 2013, Class 1 made up 47.77 percent of the city’s property value but paid just 15 percent of the taxes.
The multifamily apartment buildings of Class 2 have 23.30 percent of the value but paid 37 percent of the taxes.
Class 4 commercial properties make up 25.82 percent of the total value of the city and paid the lion’s share, or 41 percent of the tax dollars.
These buildings often pass along some of this tax burden to the commercial tenants, making it harder for everyone from bodegas to big businesses to stay afloat.
Utilities are also protected because any increase in property taxes translates into a rate increase, while multifamily increases show up as rent hikes and maintenance increases for co-ops.
Additionally, to make taxes even more unfair, the total amount of taxes all the one-to-three-unit Class I properties pay — often referred to as their class share — is capped at 5 percent.
But each year, to protect their homeowner voters, the City Council requests Albany cap that share, too, at a much lower amount — usually by half.
It will be interesting how a Mayor de Blasio handles property-tax class warfare without killing businesses, while trying to provide raises to 150+ unions.
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Interior designer Jamie Drake has leased the entire top 12th floor of 4,000 square feet at 67 Irving Place, also known as Gramercy Centre.
The space in the 44,860 square-foot building between East 18th and 19th Streets has high ceilings, with natural light from four sides of windows and multiple skylights.
Drake renovated Gracie Mansion as well as rooms at City Hall for Mayor Bloomberg and has also worked with Madonna.
CBRE’s Stuart Siegel, Matthew Bergey and Daniel Bodner represented the designer, who will move from 315 E. 52nd St. after renovations are completed.
The asking rent was $52 per square foot.
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In a sudden burst of activity, a number of Downtown office buildings have sold or are now on the market.
The newest is 110 William St., a 1 million square-foot building on a street where several have already changed hands.
Douglas Harmon and Adam Spies of Eastdil Secured are just starting to market the property.
The duo is also marketing the 190,000 square-foot 156 William, which was reported by Crain’s as a 12-story building that should fetch around $60 million, or $315 per square foot, for its current owners, Capstone Equities.
East End Capital and GreenOak purchased the 570,000 square-foot No. 123 for $133 million, or $233 per square foot, which was bought by Joseph Chetrit in 2005 for $108 million at 500,000 square feet and remeasured.
The New York Recovery REIT also took a preferred equity stake of $40 million in this deal.
Darcy Stacom and William Shanahan of CBRE represented seller Mitsui Fudosan in its sale of No. 100 to Manulife. The 388,400 square-foot relatively modern building from 1973 sold for about $170 million, or $437 per square foot, still down from its 2007 price of $180 million.
Additionally, Harmon and Spies have the 393,000 square-foot 90 Broad on the market for Swig Equities. This was purchased at the end of 2005 for $90,564,283.
The 2.2 million square-foot One Chase Manhattan Plaza was also purchased by the Chinese Fosun Group for $725 million, or $345 per square foot, in a deal marketed by Stacom and Shanahan of CBRE.
Harmon said, “Downtown has more than arrived — it’s become a legitimate focal point for a broad spectrum of worldwide investors”
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The Durst Organization’s marketing center for One World Trade Center opened last week on the 63rd floor of the iconic tower.
The views are amazing and the building is nearing completion. The lobby’s white marble is lightly streaked with black veins and runs upwards of 50 feet. The same marble is in the common hallways. An elevator whisked us to the 63rd floor in seconds as our ears popped.
Rents run $75 a square foot for floors under this, and increase above it. The brokers include Durst’s Eric Engelhardt, along with the Cushman & Wakefield team of Tara Stacom and Alan Stein with Jodi Pulice of JRT Realty Group.
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The Hispanic Aids Forum has leased 8,300 square feet at 1767 Park Ave. by 122nd Street. The offices will have 4,500 square feet on the fourth floor and 3,800 square feet on the top/fifth floor.
Jack Senior of Norman Bobrow & Company represented the tenant, which will be moving out of their current offices at 213 W. 35th St.
Holley Drakeford of Giscombe Realty Group represented the owners, who had an asking rent of $32 per square foot.