ELLSWORTH, Maine — The recent sale of the former Lowe’s property in Ellsworth to Jackson Laboratory is widely accepted as a good deal for the city.
Turns out, it was a pretty sweet deal for the lab, too.
The Bar Harbor genetic research facility paid just over half the assessed value of the 17-acre parcel and its 140,000 square-foot big-box building, according to paperwork obtained Tuesday from Maine Revenue Service.
The lab paid $3.2 million for the property when the deal closed on Oct. 26. It was assessed at $5.9 million last year, according to Ellsworth assessment records.
The store closed its doors in November 2011. Until the property sold, the South Carolina-based Lowe’s Home Centers Inc. was still on the hook for property taxes each year. Assistant Assessor Valerie Moon said it’s not unusual for large companies to sell their discarded property at slashed prices in order to disinvest themselves of costly empty buildings.
The lab’s price is an even sweeter deal considering the property’s value in 2011, when Lowe’s was still open. Moon said the fully operational retail outlet was assessed at a whopping $16 million that year.
Follow Mario Moretto at @riocarmine.
And the punchline is that the lab will pay ZERO in property taxes. Oh and to the excited restaurant owners in Ellsworth, keep in mind that the lab in Bar Harbor has their own eatery they’ve installed there to make it far less likely the workers go into town. TTFN
Ayuh…and that is why our taxes and building materials cost so much… cost of doing business…if we can’t make it in the market area…walk away and let the locals pay for it.
The sub shop next to Darling’s will be seeing some steady lunch traffic, I bet!
This looks like a plus for the community: Some new good paying jobs,(not sure how many of those jobs are being transferred from Bar Harbor, some but not all), Occupation of a vacant building with no employees now, but a projected increase in local employment, (we sure need that!), some additional business for the surrounding stores in the area….gotta have lunch, buy gas, pick up some groceries on the way home…all in all a good offset for the fact that the Jackson Lab may not pay much in property taxes in Ellsworth, but might provide some good paying jobs…… and a trickle down economic benefit? All Good!