They’ll Say Anything.
By Jim Conley • Sep 26th, 2007 • Email This Post to a Friend •
Print This Post
• Email this author
As I’ve said previously, I couldn’t bring myself to watch the Parade of Fools consider a ground lease with Children’s Hospital in Brookline Village [see post].
I have seen the TAB report on the hearing and I’ve just now been able to get back up from the floor. The brief story says:
“Ken Lewis, a member of the Economic Development Advisory Board, called the agreement “innovative” for such a ‘conceptually simple’ document. ‘We have the very situation the ground lease was designed to protect — a nonprofit owner/occupant,’ Lewis said, predicting the town would gain $1.2 million in tax revenue per year [emphasis added].”
What the…?
This is the same Ken Lewis who performed a financial analysis (in 2004) for the EDAB that showed an office building (like the one Children’s is constructing) to be a poor tax revenue producer when compared to a biolab facility. In fact, it was that analysis from Lewis that served to justify the up-zoning of the B2 Parcel to accommodate a larger structure.
But even then, Lewis put the annual tax revenue from the biolab at $1 million per year.
Now an administrative building for a children’s hospital is a cash cow to the tune of $1.2 million? Can’t wait to see that analysis.
Update: Here’s a link to the previous analysis performed by Lewis (it begins on page 12). And wait a minute, the assumption that led the Town to believe it could generate $1 million in tax revenue from the B2 Parcel hinges on a $58 million commercial valuation.
Children’s is building a $58 million facility in Brookline? And then they’re going to voluntarily pay $1.2 million in taxes annually? Wow.
Jim Conley is publisher of On Brookline.
Email this author | All posts by Jim Conley
A charitable non-profit may pay more to acquire a parcel of property than a private for profit party because the former may be entitled to a property tax exemption. But if the charitable non-profit lacks such a benefit, then it is more on an equal footing with a party in the private sector competing to acquire the property. So how much did Wynn/Cashin make on their cash-in? (Keep in mind that they voluntarily ponied up $250,000 to Gateway East to improve the area.) It is still possible that Children’s paid a premium because it is like the camel getting its nose under the tent, in a position to expand the Longwood Medical Area with direct access to the Green Line. Maybe this area may be dubbed “Medical Gateway East.”
By the way, I’m sure that Children’s obtained a formal legal opinion for its protection. Did the Town? I wonder what tt cost the Town in legal fees for such a “conceptually simple” document, or two or three? Simple is comparative as may be the estimated revenues. We’ll find out, perhaps, in two or three years. Meantime, it will have been a long wait.