The city of Hartford is weighing a 10-year tax fixing agreement for a new Land Rover dealership that recently invested more than $6 million to redevelop the former Baronet Coffee site in the North Meadows.
Hartford’s city council at its regular meeting Monday is slated to discuss a resolution that would grant a tax fixing agreement for Land Rover Hartford owners Mitchell Auto Group as annual taxes on the 77 Weston St. property have more than tripled since it invested $6.2 million to rehabilitate the 30,600-square-foot facility in 2019.
The resolution states that the property in the so-called “Auto Row” area was valued at more than $1.5 million prior to the renovation of the industrial site, yielding an annual tax revenue of $60,219. Upon completion, the value of the property increased over $4.2 million to a total of $5.3 million, and now yields annual taxes of about $279,000.
Commencing with the 2019 grand list, which accounts for July 2020-Jan. 2021 tax bills, the proposal calls for fixing the assessed value of the property so it yields annual taxes of about $191,497 in the first three years; $213,377 in years four to six; $235,257 in years seven to nine; and $257,137 in year 10. In total, the dealership would owe an estimated $2.1 million in taxes over a decade, saving hundreds of thousands of dollars on the deal.
Under the agreement, Mitchell Auto Group pledged to ensure that 20% of its workforce are city residents. It will also establish a job-training scholarship program for Hartford students attending A.I. Prince Technical High School on Flatbush Avenue. The scholarship/grant program would be aimed at encouraging three A.I. Prince students a year in their pursuit of careers in the automotive repair industries.
Mitchell Auto Group, of Canton and Simsbury, and led by co-owners Mark and Steven Mitchell, first inquired about a potential tax abatement when it acquired the property for $3 million in Dec. 2016, but agreed to delay those talks while the city continued litigation with a coalition of auto dealers in the North Meadows area seeking tax relief, city records show.
Those proceedings came to a conclusion in Sept. 2019, when the city finalized an agreement that authorized an average assessment decrease of roughly 17% for the dealerships.
Mayor Luke Bronin told councilors the proposed tax deal with Mitchell Auto Group is “consistent with the agreements reached with the other auto dealerships.”
“Approval of the proposed tax assessment fixing agreement will incentivize the retention of a valued business entity resulting in the redevelopment of a vacant property designated in an IBD (Industrial and Business Development) area, thereby returning a non-performing property to productive use,” Bronin’s narrative about the tax deal states.
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