On Monday, Target filed a new challenge in state Supreme Court in Mayville seeking to cut its tax assessment in half from $3.4 million to $1.7 million.

The company challenged its tax assessment in state Supreme Court in 2022 in an attempt to have its $3.4 million tax assessment decreased. That case was eventually settled a little more than a year after it was filed and set the assessment for 2023 and 2024. The settlement left Target’s tax assessment unchanged, but Ellicott agreed to approve a 485-B tax exemption starting with the 2025 assessment on the building that will phase in 50% of any assessment increase over the original $3.4 million tax assessment due to physical changes to the property. Section 485-b of the state Real Property Tax Law provides the basis for a 50% reduction of the increase in assessed value due to certain qualifying new construction, alterations, installations or improvements for the purpose of commercial, business or industrial activity.

According to a 2022 court filing by Marilyn Fiore-Lehman, attorney for the town of Ellicott in the first case, Target purchased the building for $3.15 million and had obtained a building permit to make improvements estimated at $4.5 million.

RITE AID CHALLENGE

The location of the former Rite Aid on North Main Street is pictured. The store closed in 2023, and the building’s owner is trying to get its assessment lowered from $3.2 million to $288,000. P-J photo by John Whittaker

In Jamestown, the current owner of the vacant former Rite Aid store at 811 N. Main St., are challenging the store’s $3.2 million tax assessment. The filing seeks to have the tax assessment cut by $2.88 million to $240,000. Rite Aid closed its 811 N. Main St. store in January 2023.

“Petitioner respectfully prays that the assessment roll be reviewed and corrected, and that said assessment of petitioner’s real property be reduced to a proper amount and be properly equalized with the assessments of other real property on the same roll,” attorneys Robert and Aaron Jacobson of the Jacobson Law Firm in Pittsford wrote in their court filing in state Supreme Court.

State Supreme Court Justice Grace Hanlon approved tax assessment decreases for two other Jamestown drug store buildings late in 2023. Walgreens asked the court to decrease its tax assessment from $2,425,000 to $727,500, a decrease of $1,697,500, after company officials claimed the tax assessment on the building exceeded the full value of the property, was made at a higher percentage of value than the assessed value of other property in the city, was misclassified by the city and that the Walgreens location hadn’t received all or a portion of a business investment tax exemption to which it was entitled.

CVS officials filed for an assessment decrease on its Brooklyn Square store from $1,920,000 to $960,000 for 2023 and 2024. Hanlon ruled the assessment for 2023 should remain the same and decreased the assessment for 2024 by $50,000 to $1,870,000.