Boston Hill, a proposed shopping center and housing development at the junction of Routes 9 and 20 that never got off the ground, could yield as much as $275,000 in back taxes for Northborough, Shrewsbury, and Westborough if the property is sold at auctions scheduled for next week.

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The 118-acre property straddles the borders of the three towns. Officials in each town have placed liens on sections of the property after its owner, Kingston-based Boston Hill Realty Trust, failed to pay property taxes for the past few years.

“We love it when the mortgage companies do this work,” Westborough Treasurer Joanne Savignac said of the scheduled auctions. “We’ve got liens that will be satisfied. We’re looking to collect a lot of money on this.”

The trust owes Shrewsbury $60,000, Northborough $42,000, and Westborough $173,000, according to treasurers and tax collectors in each town.

In 2003, different companies took out permits in the three towns to build single-family homes, offices, stores, and a restaurant on the land, said Shrewsbury’s town engineer, Jack Perreault. But the project was stymied by a number of errors, including the failure of developers to put up a required traffic light at Route 20 and Valente Drive, the main access point.

The YMCA Boroughs Family Branch, which opened on an 18-acre lot in the middle of the property in 2002, brought trust principals Charles and James Sanderson to court after delays in building a road and utilities for the facility. They reached a settlement that resulted in the Sandersons completing the work, if months behind schedule. Neither Sanderson returned repeated telephone calls for a comment.

“We would love that hill to be developed, whether it’s commercial or residential,” said Kenneth Mierzykowski, vice president of operations for the YMCA of Central Massachusetts. “From our perspective, let’s start fresh if we can.”

The Sandersons also ran afoul of the state Department of Environmental Protection over Boston Hill. Last year, the agency fined the trust $15,000 after deciding that it had been dumping sewage into nearby wetlands from a pumping station that was constructed without proper permits.

A few months later, the DEP fined the trust $40,500 for not complying with an agreement over the dumping.

The auction of a 1.2-acre parcel of Boston Hill on Route 20, where a gas station used to stand, is scheduled for next Thursday at 1 p.m., said auctioneer Francis Trapasso of Worcester. A separate auction to sell the rest of the property will take place at 2 p.m.

Winning bidders need to put up nonrefundable deposits, $100,000 for the small parcel and $200,000 for the larger one, Trapasso said.

At an auction in September, he said, the Route 20 parcel was sold for $1 million and the larger piece for $18 million. But the bidders never came up with the money, paving the way for next week’s sale.

Numerous private companies also have liens or mortgages on the property, including a $3.25 million mortgage held by the Gemstone Investment Co. of Worcester, which is seeking to foreclose on the property. Gemstone’s lawyer, Allison Lane of Fletcher, Tilton & Whipple of Worcester, did not return repeated calls for comment.

Because Boston Hill has been dogged by so many false starts, Shrewsbury’s treasurer, Carolyn Marcotte, said she wasn’t holding her breath for the tax money owed to the town. “We hope we’ll get our money, but, like I said, we’ve been there before,” she said.

The chairwoman of Westborough’s Board of Selectmen, Susan Abladian, said the $173,000 owed to her town isn’t a windfall, but it would come in handy as officials put together their budgets for the next fiscal year

http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2007/11/29/boston_hill_site_slated_for_another_auction_bid/

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Among Canada’s big cities, Edmonton has the best mix of business to residential tax ratios — meaning that the city is an attractive place to do or locate a business.According to a study by the Real Property Association of Canada, the commercial-to-residential tax ratio in Edmonton is two to one — second only to St. John’s, N.L.., ratio of 1.5 to one.

The dubious distinction of highest commercial tax ratio is Vancouver, with a five-to-one rate of commercial to residential tax.

It is a measure of how tax-friendly a city is, says Michael Brooks, executive director of REALpac, as the industry association for property business investment is known.

“It’s very good news for Edmonton businesses and for Edmonton to attract new business,” said Brooks.

The ratio uses a formula representing the tax paid per $1,000 of commercial assessment versus residential. The balance in Vancouver means that businesses are essentially subsidizing residential taxes to the point that the value of services the city provides exceeds the residential tax base, thanks to the subsidy from business.

That in turn drives business and commercial enterprises away from Canada’s left coast.

“Who’s the beneficiary of Vancouver’s problem? Edmonton and Calgary,” says Brooks.

The study is based on the last three years of tax rates in major Canadian cities.

Vancouver’s unfriendly business tax regime replaces Toronto as the most tax-unfriendly city in Canada for business.

The 2007 Property Tax Assessment and Tax Analysis of 2006 Data was prepared by Altus Derbyshire Realty Tax Consulting.

It also highlights other tax issues, such as the worst effective annual commercial property tax rate in Canada. That title is held by Regina, with more than five per cent of commercial value of business per $1,000 of commercial assessment. Montreal weighs in second at 4.7 per cent.

Regina also has the double-whammy distinction of highest residential tax rates in Canada, with 2.25 per cent of property value going to municipal tax coffers.

Edmonton’s rate is close to one per cent.

http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/news/business/story.html?id=8887b851-7cc9-45d1-a2af-00920be7865a

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