10 West Westfield Avenue, known as the Sullivan property, located at the end of Chestnut Street was awarded an assessment reduction through an appeal the developer filed this year. The taxes have been lowered by a total of almost $10,800.
The two properties listed were Block 610, Lots 1 & 3 and constitute the old Sullivan Chevrolet dealership and the parking lot. MAS Development Group and its founder Sal Garcia had a proposed site plan denied by the Roselle Park Municipal Land Use Board (MLUB) almost a year ago in September of 2015 (link).
At the August 18th Mayor & Council meeting, Resolution 190-16 formalized the appeals. Although it is commonly known as a ‘tax appeal’, the appeal is actually for the assessed value of a property. That value is multiplied by 3.811 (this year’s tax rate) to arrive at the related tax. The new assessments as well as the taxes for both properties were reduced by almost 13%. This lowered the combined assessment for both lots by over a quarter of a million dollars and the property taxes by $10,796.57.
| Block | Lot | Owner | Original Assessment | Judgment Assessment | Reduced Assessment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 610 | 1 | NJ Developers | $252,500.00 | $245,000.00 | $7,500.00 |
| 610 | 3 | NJ Developers | $1,954,100.00 | $1,678,300.00 | $275,800.00 |
TOTALS | $2,206,600.00 | $1,923,300.00 | $283,300.00 |
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| Block | Lot | Address | Assessed Taxes | New Taxes | Reduced Taxes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 610 | 1 | 10 West Westfield Avenue | $9,622.78 | $9,336.95 | $285.83 |
| 610 | 3 | 10 West Westfield Avenue | $74,470.75 | $63,960.01 | $10,510.74 |
TOTALS | $84,093.53 | $73,296.96 | $10,796.57 |
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There has been no official word on progress – if any – regarding development of the Sullivan property. It has been included in Roselle Park’s Master Plan Reexamination Report – just updated this month (link) – as a potential Area In Need Of Redevelopment. Mr. Garcia did not return a call to comment for this article.
These two lots bring the total of assessments successfully appealed to 24 since the townwide revaluation of all properties was conducted last year by Realty Appraisal Company. Previous to that, the last revaluation in Roselle Park was in the mid-1970s. The refunded taxes for the 24 properties now stands at $43,590.23.