An entire corner of Brooklyn Square changed ownership earlier this spring. The $2,137,500 property purchase by 716 Rapid Rentals LLC prompts an obvious question – what’s next for an area that has seen its share of disappointment over the past couple of years. Last year the Big Lots store in the plaza closed its doors as the company went bankrupt. Tim Hortons, meanwhile, moved its operation across the street, leaving the outparcel restaurant building on the site vacant as well.

We have no doubt that 716 Rapid Rentals has a plan for the parcel, whether it’s a new type of use or simply an attempt to fill the vacant space in the buildings with a retail store and a restaurant. It will be an interesting development to watch in the coming months because, whether everyone realizes it or not, you have skin in this development effort as well.

Savarina Corporation was trying to have its assessment lowered in state Supreme Court from a full value assessment of $2,298,507 to $229,851 prior to the sale. That would have been on top of a 2025 assessment decrease of $340,000 for the property. Last year saw the transition of Jamestown Business College to non-taxable status resulted in a $517,700 reduction in assessed value, a $1.67 million decrease in taxable assessment for the BWB building on Third Street and an $800,000 assessment decrease for the Rite Aid building in Brooklyn Square. All told, Jamestown lost

$3,327,700 in taxable assessment in 2025 after losing $860,000 in 2024. Those assessment decreases meant that a greater percentage of rising city costs are being paid by homeowners rather than owners of bigger buildings downtown.

In our view, taxpayers have already benefitted from the sale of the Brooklyn Square properties even before 716 Rental Properties began marketing the buildings by taking the building’s tax assessment out of a judge’s hands.

Savarina Corporation officials ended the tax assessment challenge on the Brooklyn Square properties once the sale of the properties was finalized. The end of that challenge is good for taxpayers because it protects the taxable assessment for at least the current year’s tax rolls. But we know future tax assessment challenges are possible, especially if the vacant buildings continue to remain empty. That means everyone in the city should be rooting for the new owner to have success not only for the benefits that a revitalized new use can have for downtown Jamestown, but also because quickly finding a new use protects the taxable value of the properties in future years.

Here’s hoping Brooklyn Square’s parking lots are full again soon.