Hartford Business Journal

www.HartfordBusiness.com August 8, 2016 • Hartford Business Journal 3 Hartford's realty holdings fortify its untaxed property list By Gregory Seay and Greg Bordonaro gseay@HartfordBusiness.com, gbordonaro@HartfordBusiness.com O f the $6.5 billion of assessed real estate within the city of Hartford's tightly confined borders, 59 percent of it is untaxed because its owners are nonprofits or other tax-exempt entities, according to a Hartford Business Journal data analysis of the city's Grand List. It's an issue city officials have long decried as a significant contributor to Hartford's finan- cial woes, limiting the property base from which it can extract tax revenues. But in many ways the city's relatively vast realty holdings in themselves are problematic, critics say. Of the approximately $3.8 billion in tax- exempt real estate on Hartford's 2015 Grand List, the city owns nearly 30 percent of it, including hundreds of properties with a com- bined assessed value of around $1.1 billion, the HBJ analysis found. It includes only real estate — schools, parks, firehouses, the public-safety and public- works complexes, city hall, plus asundry resi- dential and commercial parcels seized in lieu of back taxes. Adding commercial personal- property and motor vehicles to the tax rolls lowers the tax-exempt ratio to the 51 percent typically cited by city officials. The abundance of city-owned real estate has some urging city officials to step up their efforts to sell off or co-develop underused prop- erties, along with houses, buildings and lots it has accumulated either due to unpaid taxes or because their owners abandoned them. The city's top economic-development executive, Jamie Bratt, says the city's real estate portfolio is an asset for providing pub- lic access to city services as well as offices for its administrative and department staffs and operations. As for whether the city owns or oversees too much real estate, Bratt said the city is committed to a measured approach as to which properties to sell or develop so as not to create a future space shortage or need, or to push properties onto an already soft commercial real estate market. "We try to weed out any development we feel would be incongruous with the desires of the community,'' Bratt said. Either way, Bratt says the process for iden- tifying and disposing of realty assets is time consuming. And even if the city sold all of its marketable real estate, the proceeds are unlikely to go far enough to solve the city's budget crisis, which includes projected multi- million-dollar deficits for years to come. "It would not solve the city's fiscal situa- tion,'' said Bratt, who earlier this year took over as director of planning and develop- ment. "There is a common misperception of how much [city] land there is'' to sell. Besides the city, the state of Connecticut is also a major holder of tax-exempt property in Hartford. It owns more than 100 parcels assessed at over $840 million, including state and judicial offices, the governor's mansion, state capitol, etc. In recent years the state has grown its Hartford footprint acquiring two major downtown Hartford office towers — 55 Farmington Ave. and 450 Columbus Blvd. (formerly Connecticut River Plaza) — to con- solidate some of its leased holdings. According to state Office of Policy & Management spokesman Chris McClure, the city draws more than $250 million a year in municipal aid to "help offset the property- tax implications.'' Moreover, McClure said, the state regularly delivers other intangible benefits to the city's economy. " … The benefits of having the three branches of state government occupying office buildings and employees living and working in the Capital City are essential to Hartford's municipal economy and the city's attractiveness to developers,'' he said. Hospitals and colleges also own hundreds of millions of dollars in tax-exempt properties, while the federal government, churches and charitable organizations are also major tax- exempt land owners, HBJ's analysis found. There have been attempts by past city lead- ers, including former Mayor Pedro Segarra, to get colleges and hospitals to make voluntary payments in lieu of taxes to the city, but those efforts have largely been rebuffed. Development opportunities, challenges For the city's sake, identifying which of its properties are surplus or underutilized is an ongoing process, Bratt said. And there have been several examples of the city selling off real estate and other assets in recent years, in some cases to raise quick revenues to plug budget deficits. Two years ago, the city sold 6 ½ acres off Jennings Road, in the North Meadows, to Springfield's Pride Convenience Inc. for a truck stop it's building that will employ 45 Continued Cybersecurity is hard. Defend Forward is easy. One monthly subscription puts the technology, training and expertise in place to defend your company's information, reputation, and future. Your Allies Against Crippling Cyber Attacks www.kelsercorp.com/DefendForward www.kelsercorp.com 111 Roberts St, Suite D East Hartford, CT 06108 860 610 2200 H B J P H O T O | G R E G O R Y S E A Y The city of Hartford's realty holdings include its 30-acre Public Works depot in the North Meadows. Largest Tax-Exempt Property Owners in Hartford Property Grossed Assesed Owner Property Value City $1.1 Billion State $840 Million - $868 Million General Hospitals $690 Million College/University $371 Million Church $170 Million Charitable $132 Million Federal $96 Million S O U R C E : C I T Y O F H A R T F O R D A S S E S S O R ' S O F F I C E

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