Perrysburg Township vote smooths way for developer

12/7/2004

Perrysburg Township trustees approved an agreement yesterday that will allow an office building developer to take advantage of tax abatements offered in a Community Reinvestment Area but will result in no tax loss for the township.

Butler Capital Advisors, a financial planning company now in downtown Toledo, plans to construct an 11,000-square-foot, $1.11 million office building in Coventry Woods Executive Park, at State Rt. 795 and Simmons Road. The property improvements are expected to result in $32,920 in taxes for the township over the next 10 years.

Last month the developers asked the township to waive those taxes, but Trustees Barbara Gunn and Craig LaHote were reluctant to grant the tax abatement. Bob Mack, chairman of the trustees, abstained from discussing the issue because he is the real estate agent for the Executive Park land.

Last night developers revised their request and agreed to reimburse the township for the entire amount of the tax abatement.

The agreement with the township trustees will allow the developers to seek abatements on nearly $150,000 in taxes from Perrysburg schools, the Penta Career Center, and Wood County. The county commissioners must approve the abatements.

The office building is eligible for tax abatements under rules of a Community Reinvestment Area created in the late 1990s to attract business.

Representatives of Butler Capital Advisors have told township officials they planned their move to the site because they believed it qualified for a 10-year tax abatement and approval of the abatement by township officials would be a formality.

"We got some bad advice," David Baum, an officer for Butler Capital Advisors, told the trustees last month.

Mr. Mack, a real estate agent with Signature Associates, said promotional materials for the Executive Park site stated that it was in a Community Reinvestment Area, but he explained to developers they would need to apply for the tax abatements. He said he acted only as a real estate agent and did not use his position as trustee to imply that the tax abatement would be approved.