Settlement reduces nursing home’s assessment by $1.6 million

By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 3 February 2017 at 9:29 am

File photo by Tom Rivers: The Villages of Orleans Health and Rehabilitation Center, which became privately owned on Jan. 1, 2015, was added to the tax rolls for the first time in 2015 at a $6,618,900 assessment. An acting State Supreme Court justice reduced the assessment to $5 million after a challenge by the new owners.

(Editor’s Note: Orleans Hub is a little late reporting the assessment legal fight for the former county-owned nursing home in Albion, but we wanted to let the community know how the issue played out in court.)

ALBION – When the former county-owned nursing home went on the tax rolls for the first time in 2015, the site was assessed for a $6,618,900.

Comprehensive Healthcare Management Services LLC paid $7.8 million on for the 120-bed Villages of Orleans Health and Rehabilitation Center on Route 31 in Albion. The sale was effective on Jan. 1, 2015.

The new owners filed a challenge to the assessment, saying the site should be valued at $2.5 million.

The site is just outside the Village of Albion so Comprehensive is spared paying the village tax rate of $17.66 per $1,000 of assessed property.

However, it pays $31.44 per $1,000 cumulative for the other tax rates (Town of Albion, $4.04; Albion Central School, $15.43; Orleans County, $9.77; Hoag Library, $1.27; and for fire protection, 93 cents).

Every $1 million in assessment accounts for $31,440 in taxes. A $6,618,900 assessment would result in a $208,098 tax bill for the nursing home owners.

The owners and the Town of Albion, which determines the assessment, reached a settlement putting the value at $5 million. Judge James Punch, acting Supreme Court justice, approved the settlement with an order signed July 15, 2016.

The settlement sets the assessment at $5 million for six years, going back to 2015-16, and keeping the value at $5 million until 2020-21, unless Comprehensive does more than $500,000 in improvements to the property.

The settlement saves Comprehensive $50,898 in taxes annually, based on a combined rate of $31.44. The taxing jurisdictions will receive $157,200 each year. When the site was owned by the county, it didn’t generate any tax revenues for the local governments.

In Medina, Orchard Manor had been tax exempt until it was acquired by Global Health Care in 2012. Orchard Manor Rehabilitation and Nursing Center on Bates Road was owned by Medina Memorial Hospital.

The site sold for $4.1 million and assessors determined that was the assessed value for 160-bed facility.

The new owners filed a tax challenge, saying assessment should be $410,000. Global Health pays about $225,000 in property taxes with a combined tax rate of about $55 per $1,000 of assessed property, which includes a $17.66 rate for being in the Village of Medina.

Global, however, has withdrawn the assessment challenge and is paying taxes on a property assessed at $4.1 million.

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