Jonathan Galgay sent along an email to add some information to the post last week about the city's tax assessment for the property at 50 Beaumont Avenue, also known as I.J. Samson school.
He's adds some useful background about how the city arrived at a value: the waited for the sale.
Galgay also adds some other information that matches up - ironically enough - with the reasons the school-board offered up for the relatively low cost of the sale despite the fact it's a big piece of land in the centre of town.
"The sale price," Galgay wrote, "would have been reflective of the risk associated with the unknowns for the cost of environmental remediation , demolition of the building and uncertainty with regard to redevelopment potential related to the necessary rezoning of the property."
Exactly. The property is worth what the market will pay for it. And the property, as it is, comes with lots of risks, as Galgay noted.
Funny thing is that a couple of weeks ago, Galgay wrote to the provincial auditor general asking for an investigation into the process of tendering and sale of the land and building. Galgay said he was "disgusted" by the sale. Plus, as Galgay notes below, the city can reassess the property as it is developed and increase the tax bill to reflect any future development. That's pretty much what folks in the real estate industry said two weeks ago.
