City’s tax arrears list down to 39 properties

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This article was published 29/05/2013 (4695 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

There are still 39 properties that owe the City of Brandon more than half a million dollars combined in overdue taxes.

If the property owners fail to pay off the 2011 debt by the October deadline, they risk losing the property in a tax sale.

The city’s updated tax arrears list, which was posted online Tuesday, shows the property at 1133 Princess Ave., which is now where The Dock on Princess is located, owes just over $21,000 ($10,264 for 2011 and $11,393 for 2012).

As The Dock only opened its doors in late 2012, the overdue taxes were accumulated from the previous business at that location, Clancy’s Eatery and Drinkery, owned by Coun. Corey Roberts (Rosser).

Roberts and his wife Betina ran the pub from 2006 to the summer of 2012. Financial issues and one disastrous year — a “perfect storm” of problems, as Roberts called it during an interview with the Brandon Sun last year — forced the couple to sell to avoid financial ruin and keep the operation out of receivership.

When the Roberts purchased the building, they took out a mortgage and soon after a small-business loan from Vanguard Credit Union, for $280,000 and $200,000, respectively, according to land title records. But the mortgage did not cover the entire cost of the land and building sale.

Anxious to close the deal, the previous owners — who had operated the business as Miss Q’s — also took out a mortgage on the property and Roberts agreed to pay off that loan as well, as part of the sale.

A few years down the road after Clancy’s was well established, Community Futures Westman took on the second mortgage from the former owners. They also took on a few other debts from the business and worked out a financing arrangement.

CF Westman acquired the property, and Trent Clayton, business development officer with the lending company, said the overdue taxes will be squared up by the October deadline.

“It’s paid out from the proceeds of the sale,” he said. “We’re just waiting for that to be done so everything can be paid, and then it’s fine.”

Clayton said they are waiting for lawyers to complete the paperwork before the property can officially change hands.

“The way I see it is nobody owns it right now, it’s just sitting at land titles waiting for everything to be changed over,” he said.

Jamie Munro, general manager of The Dock, said while the pub address is on the tax arrears list, it’s not their company that owes the taxes.

“It was all included in the purchase. However, the funds from the purchase, for whatever reason, between the former owners and the people that had financed the building before, the money is not starting to be distributed, but it’s been paid from our side,” he said. “That’s all being taken care of with the lawyers.”

Roberts said he was surprised to see the property was on the tax arrears list this month.

“We have nothing to do with that piece of property at all anymore,” Roberts said Tuesday. “I don’t know if there’s been a mix-up between documents filed … I have no idea, but when property is purchased all of that stuff is supposed to be cleared up legally before the new people get titles.”

Still on the arrears list is a property at 571 Middleton Ave. (truck/trailer yard), for which just over $40,000 is owed. More than $23,000 is owed for the property at 631 Rosser Ave., which are currently vacant storefronts. Just over $14,000 is owed for the property at 1203 Princess Ave. — a building where Mecca Productions rents space and also includes a few apartment suites and Brandon Appliance Repair.

The property owing the most in back taxes is Shape Foods, the flax seed processing plant. The company owes $317,000.

CEO Taras Sokolyk said the company is working to pay off the debt by the deadline.

“We’re a young, struggling company. We pay the penalties, we understand the rules and we’re going to keep doing that,” he said. “We’re going to catch up … Do I want to pay my taxes on time? We all do. Is there a balance in how you do that? Yes. We’re not reneging. The ownership group is committed to the long-term to make this work. Do we need some help? From time to time we do.”

The original list, posted online in the first week of May, showed a total of 49 properties had overdue taxes. One was co-owned by Mayor Shari Decter Hirst and her husband, Dr. Derry Decter.

Decter’s clinic at 841 Rosser Ave. owed roughly $8,600 in back taxes. The taxes have been paid and that property has since been taken off the list.

» jaustin@brandonsun.com