A couple of similar situations have come up over the years:
1) the parcel on Cemetery Rd where Life Community Church sits now and has for 20 years of more, was before a Sutherlands home improvement center. LCC wanted to build a church on the parcel, and also to have the parcel declared exempt from property tax. The Mayor and Council opposed this use for a parcel on the main thoroughfare of the city. As I recall, there was vocal community support for LCC, leading the Mayor and Council to relent. Today that parcel is indeed property tax exempt;
2) Tree of Life industries similarly wanted to buy the former Henderson Rd headquarters of CompuServe to make it a religious school, but was told by the leadership of the City of UA that a rezoning to property tax exempt status would not be approved, and that ToL should seek another site. ToL disregarded this advice and purchased the property anyway. When UA refused to change the zoning, ToL began litigation which dragged on for years. ToL brought in a number of commercial tenants, and paid taxes, but eventually gave up on making the property into a school. It has since been sold to GOSH, which operates Charlie's Cheesesteaks and Bibibop, who has made it their headquarters.
3) Cardinal Healthcare would like to sell one of their two headquarters buildings on Emerald Pkwy to Dublin City Schools, which would also make this top class commercial office building a property tax exempt parcel. The City of Dublin opposes this.
City governments are dependent on income tax revenue to fund operations, and Class A office building capable of housing lots of high paying jobs is not something they want to see slip through their fingers. And it should also be noted that the property tax revenue from these parcels are important to the school district as well as the township (which provides fire/EMS protection).
So the City Council has a tough decision: let a high value commercial revenue generator become one that generates much less, or take the political heat, and litigation costs, for denying a request by a large and important religious community.
This situation could have been avoided had Noor/BPH worked out the rezoning stuff with the CIty prior to purchasing the property. No commercial developer would put themselves in this position, and would typically require the seller to get the necessary zoning before closing on the purchase.
But they didn't. So a solution has to be worked out with Noor/BPH already holding title.
Maybe the best solution is for the two parties to sit down and develop an economic development agreement that provides income/property tax revenue to the three primary local governments (city, schools, township), and also allows Noor/BPH to use the building in the way they planned.
The previous owner had defaulted on a $26mil loan so the property was in receivership on its way to foreclosure when the note went up for auction and Noor won the auction. So the suggestion that they should have asked Ms Crandall's permission before buying the building is misguided and I suspect deliberately misinforming as a smokescreen to defend the terrible city council decision. Secondly, the plan for the building was to commercialize 90% of it and use 10% as a nonprofit community center so property taxes would have been paid on 90% of the building that was being rented to various businesses. Again smoke screening for council.
This "ask Ms Crandall's permission" meme that I've seen many times suggests a misunderstanding of how the zoning process works. Specifically, it is the City Council which approves zoning changes, not the City Manager.
I merely pointed out that if a rezoning was going to be required, the wise step is to have the seller get that sorted out before making the purchase. I imagine BPH had plenty of time to decide whether or not to bid at the auction - you don't just show up the day bids are die and decide to offer $millions. They could have used that time to assess the challenges they might run into getting it rezoned.
We’ve got an hour long interview coming Wednesday that will hopefully answer some questions about what’s happened behind the scenes getting to this point.
They should charge religious buildings property tax. They are a business like most others. Maybe it can be less but there is not reason they shouldn't now a days
Fascinating story and very solid reporting. Thanks!
Great reporting Kevin, the city is WAY overstepping, again; this is the most complete report I have come across!
Hope this is resolved for the Noor Center and the city avoids any financial exposure.
A couple of similar situations have come up over the years:
1) the parcel on Cemetery Rd where Life Community Church sits now and has for 20 years of more, was before a Sutherlands home improvement center. LCC wanted to build a church on the parcel, and also to have the parcel declared exempt from property tax. The Mayor and Council opposed this use for a parcel on the main thoroughfare of the city. As I recall, there was vocal community support for LCC, leading the Mayor and Council to relent. Today that parcel is indeed property tax exempt;
2) Tree of Life industries similarly wanted to buy the former Henderson Rd headquarters of CompuServe to make it a religious school, but was told by the leadership of the City of UA that a rezoning to property tax exempt status would not be approved, and that ToL should seek another site. ToL disregarded this advice and purchased the property anyway. When UA refused to change the zoning, ToL began litigation which dragged on for years. ToL brought in a number of commercial tenants, and paid taxes, but eventually gave up on making the property into a school. It has since been sold to GOSH, which operates Charlie's Cheesesteaks and Bibibop, who has made it their headquarters.
3) Cardinal Healthcare would like to sell one of their two headquarters buildings on Emerald Pkwy to Dublin City Schools, which would also make this top class commercial office building a property tax exempt parcel. The City of Dublin opposes this.
City governments are dependent on income tax revenue to fund operations, and Class A office building capable of housing lots of high paying jobs is not something they want to see slip through their fingers. And it should also be noted that the property tax revenue from these parcels are important to the school district as well as the township (which provides fire/EMS protection).
So the City Council has a tough decision: let a high value commercial revenue generator become one that generates much less, or take the political heat, and litigation costs, for denying a request by a large and important religious community.
This situation could have been avoided had Noor/BPH worked out the rezoning stuff with the CIty prior to purchasing the property. No commercial developer would put themselves in this position, and would typically require the seller to get the necessary zoning before closing on the purchase.
But they didn't. So a solution has to be worked out with Noor/BPH already holding title.
Maybe the best solution is for the two parties to sit down and develop an economic development agreement that provides income/property tax revenue to the three primary local governments (city, schools, township), and also allows Noor/BPH to use the building in the way they planned.
The previous owner had defaulted on a $26mil loan so the property was in receivership on its way to foreclosure when the note went up for auction and Noor won the auction. So the suggestion that they should have asked Ms Crandall's permission before buying the building is misguided and I suspect deliberately misinforming as a smokescreen to defend the terrible city council decision. Secondly, the plan for the building was to commercialize 90% of it and use 10% as a nonprofit community center so property taxes would have been paid on 90% of the building that was being rented to various businesses. Again smoke screening for council.
This "ask Ms Crandall's permission" meme that I've seen many times suggests a misunderstanding of how the zoning process works. Specifically, it is the City Council which approves zoning changes, not the City Manager.
I merely pointed out that if a rezoning was going to be required, the wise step is to have the seller get that sorted out before making the purchase. I imagine BPH had plenty of time to decide whether or not to bid at the auction - you don't just show up the day bids are die and decide to offer $millions. They could have used that time to assess the challenges they might run into getting it rezoned.
We’ve got an hour long interview coming Wednesday that will hopefully answer some questions about what’s happened behind the scenes getting to this point.
They should charge religious buildings property tax. They are a business like most others. Maybe it can be less but there is not reason they shouldn't now a days