Things not so bright and cheery Downtown

Interesting when all of the Toledo Mayoral Candidates have talked about making Downtown Toledo more successful then this article comes out.

Seems some of the business owners that agreed to paying a higher assessment don't feel they were given correct information. More threats to leave downtown, which already has a high vacancy rate for office space.

Some information from the article:

The "special improvement district," which was approved by a 12-0 City Council vote in January, has been a goal of Downtown Toledo Inc. since the creation of the downtown master plan in 2002. Its assessment fees, based on street frontage and building value, are expected to generate about $550,000 annually for the next five years.

State law requires property owners representing 60 percent of the front-footage in the district to sign a petition supporting the district. DTI had signed on 63 percent by the end of last year - including the properties belonging to Owens Corning, Owens-Illinois, Toledo Edison, KeyBank, Sky Bank, and the Spitzer Building.

Although the businesses within the district are not required to pay assessments until next year, DTI sent a letter in January to all business owners who supported the district asking for an early payment equal to half their annual fees in order to "move forward."

To date, only 19 of the district's 108 owners have chipped in, an amount totaling just $42,718.
The city has received 20 letters saying the assessments are unfair, with some business owners threatening to leave should the tax go through.

Gary Wahl, chief executive officer of the Roulet Co. on Madison Avenue, is vehemently opposed to the district. "We are already paying taxes. It's a double tax," he said. "If this stands, we're just going to close and move out of Toledo."

John Shousher, a partner with Adam Huron Partners LLC, owns an Adams Street building currently housing the Magic Wok restaurant. He said the roughly $2,000 a year in assessments being passed on to his tenants will make it difficult to attract new ones.

His tenant, Bill Baroudi, also sent a letter to the city, complaining that the unexpected cost would hurt his chances of survival during the "critical first year of business."

As a corner property, Mr. Shousher will get assessed for frontage on both Adams and Huron. Other owners complained that alleys were assessed as frontage, which they say was not expected.

Allan Schall, president of Toledo-based Modern Enterprises Inc., which owns two buildings on St. Clair Street across from Fifth Third Field, said he originally signed over his support for the district - but now he's changed his mind.

"When it was presented to me, my understanding and expectation of what this would cost me was different than what it turned out to be. Several times more," Mr. Schall said. "It could have been my fault in misunderstanding, it could have been miscommunication, but if I knew when I signed the petition that the costs were going to be this high, I wouldn't have signed it."

The city's assessment equalization board will meet for the first time at 10:30 a.m. in council chambers tomorrow.

Hopefully they will get some answers at tomorrow's meeting, I'll update when I hear more. To me thought, it doesn't make sense if you want businesses to stay or to move downtown to not make sure they have all the information, and that their complaints have not been addressed.

I wonder what Mr. Wilkowski's take on this is, since he feels the way to get people to move downtown is to offer tax credits for those who decide to reside downtown.

UPDATE: Found the answers to my own questions, Wilkowski's Plan for Downtown