Real Property Tax Planning & Appeals

Energy company—Successful tax appeals

Represented an energy company and successfully achieved just over $4 million in tax relief. Lee Holtzman and his team filed property tax appeals on the company’s terminal facilities in two New Jersey cities and were able to navigate negotiations through both municipalities’ respective experts and the courts.

Plaza Twenty Three—Property tax appeal

Represented this shopping mall center owner in a property tax appeal trial that saved them more than $2.4 million. After valuation claims were presented suggesting that the subject property was overvalued by some $20 million, the Tax Court entertained argument from counsel with respect to illegal spot-assessing after the property sold. The Tax Court ruled that the assessor for Pequannock Township in New Jersey had illegally spot-assessed the subject property after its transfer, thereby invalidating the increased assessment and providing dramatic relief to the taxpayer.

New Jersey hospital—Community Service Contribution Agreement

Negotiated a five-year Community Service Contribution Agreement with a New Jersey city on behalf of a hospital’s numerous properties. The city had removed the tax exemption on 37 hospital properties within the city and placed each on the taxable assessment rolls for the 2016 through and including 2020 tax years. The total taxes due on the properties totaled more than $20 million, but the Community Service Contribution Agreement limited the total payment by the hospital to $6 million, payable over a five-year period. In addition, the city owed the hospital a refund of overdue sewer and water charges totaling $1.8 million, which the city is now crediting back to the hospital against sewer and water charges due on its hospital property for the next five years. The total savings to our client is more than $15 million, including the refund of overpaid sewer and water charges.