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Ohio Supreme Court Deals Blow to Sales Designed to Take Advantage of a Property Tax Loophole

By Staff Report | February 7, 2020

On Thursday, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled that evidence of a commercial real estate transaction depends on the intent of the parties and the building transferred, not the structure of the sale. The court invalidated the "drop LLC" sale of 4121 Palmer Park Circle East, which would have deprived public coffers of about $273,000 a year in tax money, based on a lower valuation of the property. Eye on Ohio featured the case in its August 2019 investigation of the commercial property tax loophole in Ohio, which costs the median Franklin County commercial business property owner an average of at least $4,893 per year. A property owner with a $100,000 property in Columbus' tax district 10, where Palmer House is located, pays at least $1,800 extra. In December 2014, Palmer Square sold an apartment building to PPG Manhattan Real Estate Partners LLC. The 264-unit complex in New Albany, Ohio, was originally valued at $16 million in 2015. But the Columbus City School Board, which would get most of the lost tax money, argued before the Franklin County Board of Revision that the apartments were worth more. The Board of Tax Appeals later took the contracted sale price of $35.25 million and took out the value of personal property in the building, such as furniture, to arrive at a property value of $34,458,000.

Utilities’ affiliate files to compete as a broker as an Ohio bill aims to reduce corporate separation requirements

FirstEnergy foray into energy brokering raises issues of fair competition

A FirstEnergy subsidiary is seeking permission from Ohio regulators to advise customers on which electricity suppliers they should choose. The company’s application to operate as an energy broker and aggregator is an apparent reversal for FirstEnergy, which spent years legally separating from its non-regulated electricity businesses, including its former generation subsidiary. Critics say the move raises potential conflict of interest questions.

Journalism Collaborative Launches Project on Witness Safety

The press conference in October followed a well-worn script.

Community leaders and police gathered on the sturdy stone steps of City Hall, taking turns at a microphone, pleading with Clevelanders to abandon a code of silence. Once again, a child had been gunned down. This time, it was a first grader, who’d been sleeping when a torrent of bullets tore into a South Collinwood home.

Fighting for the Ohio River watershed’s mussels: Experts are working to get to the bottom of their mysterious disappearances

“Will one of these fit?” Wendell R. Haag asks, holding out a couple pairs of well-worn creeking shoes he’s pulled from the back of his pickup. Haag is going to see an aquatic wonder, and even tall waterproof rubber boots are sure to fill with water in the sometimes knee-deep stretch of the Licking River. Haag grew up near here, in Kentucky.

More Headlines

Ohio River Flooding Crosses Boundaries

Toxic Mercury Remediation in the Ohio River Hampered by Complicated Cleanup

Analysis of state contracts to plug orphaned wells reveals that cleanup costs might creep into the billions

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Investigation: Blacks, black neighborhoods most likely to be traffic stop targets in Ohio’s 3 biggest cities

By Max Londberg and Lucia Walinchus | December 18, 2019

Investigation: Blacks, black neighborhoods most likely to be traffic stop targets in Ohio’s 3 biggest cities

By Max Londberg and Lucia Walinchus

Video by Michael Nyerges

Reporters from the nonprofit newsroom Eye on Ohio, The Cincinnati Enquirer and researchers from Stanford University’s Big Local News program examined police stops to assess how the three largest communities in Ohio use public safety resources and to identify potential bias in policing. Followed in a public park and forced to leave.