SenecaOne - Drop in value

[leftWNYbecauseofBS]

$23.9 Million ($20.3M/$3.6M) is the new assessed value for both the tower and 830 space parking lot. At 853,000 sq feet that's $28.00 per sq foot.

Some comparison sales...

The Rand Building was just sold for $3.9M. At 226,000 sq feet that's $17.20 per sq/f.
The Marine Trust Building was sold for $2.5M. At 256,000 sq feet that's $10.00 per sq/f.
The Main Court Building was sold for $4.55M. At 162,000 sq feet that's $28.00 per sq/f.


All of the above have some form of occupancy and that impacts the sale price. SenecaOne is empty. My guess is it will sell between $15 to $20 per sq/f. On the low end that's just $12.8M.



So what could be done with SenecaOne?

[WNYresident]

So what could be done with SenecaOne?

So who's money are we spending?

A developers money or subsidized by us?

[4248]

Every deal is "Subsidised" - developers/investors cant make any money in this area without subsidies.

Its because most realestate carries inflated values - many because its to project and protect the overall taxable values.

If realestate was honestly revalued - think of the chain reaction in the overall market - then the taxable values for tax purposes.

Then all these people spending inflated prices for new and used homes ? We must keep the values high - larger mortgages - more taxes.

We cant have or tolerate any reason to pay less taxes or disrupt the illusions of the values for new home buyers. Reality must be ignored at all cost -

But don't worry - its all part of the grand dream of owner ship in America.

Zillow.com said it best, "Home ownership and a mortgage is just the new form of economic slavery" -

[WNYresident]

Let us do it this way.

If you were the developer/owner. No tax payer money spent except for a tax discount incentive because they are available. Not that I agree with them but they are there.

[leftWNYbecauseofBS]

Let us do it this way.

If you were the developer/owner. No tax payer money spent except for a tax discount incentive because they are available. Not that I agree with them but they are there.

Just what is this tax payer money you speak of? That's not how tax breaks work...no matter how much people complain about them.


5 years ago this building was worth X and paid Y in taxes. Today, the building is worth a 1/3 of that and pays, let's just say, 1/3 in taxes. The most recent drop in assessment will have the building paying $100,000 less in taxes. If you want to talk about REAL MONEY, that's the real money. If HSBC and the law firm did not leave, Buffalo would be getting millions more in taxes on the same exact building. Nothing has changed with the building except for it's occupancy. That occupancy rate has a cost to the 'net taxpayer' as you put it.

I should also point out that the 'net taxpayer' is an idiot. They continue to elect a guy who wants to sell a prime continuous block near the heart of all redevelopment activities to a developer in exchange for them building a grocery store on the site. A grocery store is not needed downtown. A market, a much smaller market that could go into one of the many vacant store fronts, would reasonably serve the amount of downtown residents. But the politically connected but not invested want a grocery store with all the bells and whistles and they want to screw over the 'net taxpayer' as a whole on turning over this whole parcel to get what they want. Rather than letting the market come up with a better user for the block eventually, you're going to see a crappy low density building go in it's place that will then be owned by private hands.

Back to tax breaks, if someone wants to come along and invest the 10s of millions it's going to take to get this building back to full occupancy, the COB should give whatever breaks it can to make that happen. In the long run, that's what's best for the 'net taxpayer' even if they don't understand it.