Dear Mayor Strickland,
Can you please update us, at the end of this week, with your Weekly Update, on the following 2 items:
1 – An update on procedures to collect, including interest, approximately $1M in Nike back PILOT payments. Based on the last EDGE 2019 Nike Compliance report, Nike had not been paying their 10% PILOT payment to the City. And further, would you also let us know, if you intend to advocate to hold Nike in Default of their $58M PILOT agreement due to no MWBE spend in 2017-19 while also leaving almost 1,200 low wage workers without subsidized healthcare?
2 – Shucks, anyone can make a mistake. Below, I correct a few inconsequential mistakes I made in my previous PILOT blog, regarding the favorable Aesthetic Management and RDX PILOTs. Within the spirit of course correction and getting it right, can you please correct your current Weekly Update in the next Weekly Update, to reflect the actual pre pilot taxes currently being paid on the Poplar Plaza PILOT parcels?
After pulling the City and County real property tax bills, the annual pre pilot amount is $466,508 and not $113,335, as shown in your Weekly Update. Links to the property tax bills are under the below table. Also, your annual PILOT payment for the project appears inflated at $376,489. The annual average PILOT payment should be $331,670, based on public documentation as provided in the EDGE Poplar Plaza Project Summary. Also, a minor typo appears in your Weekly Update for the Poplar Plaza PILOT. The correct address for the parcel is “3485 Plaza Avenue” as opposed to the “3585 Plaza Avenue” that appears in your update.
As you know, the University of Memphis recently announced, yet another, local “systemic racism” initiative, and then went in Deep to support the excessive Poplar Plaza PILOT, that resides in their development district. Based on the corrected amounts, the Poplar Plaza PILOT is scheduled to generate $2M less in property tax revenue than is currently being generated, based on public documentation. And this tax revenue loss, is unloaded on a Memphis majority Black community in need, as the UofM embarks on it’s “systemic racism” initiative. Go figure. See below table:
The above figures were taken first, from your Weekly Update for the “Strickland Weekly Update” row. And the below public documentation was used to compile the above figures for the “Actual” row. From the EDGE Poplar Plaza Project Summary, “Annual PILOT Payments” average $331,670, per year, over 15 years as opposed to $376,489 as contained in your Weekly Update.
“Annual Pre PILOT” revenue is calculated by adding up all of the City and County tax bills below, for the two parcels in the Poplar Plaza PILOT. Those four annual tax bills total $466,508; far more than the $113,335 in your Weekly Update. The annual average net impact on commercial property tax revenue is -$134,838 when using the corrected figures.
Over a period of 15 years, the annual -$134,838 equals -$2,022,570 in property tax losses that come as a result of the $14.7M Poplar Plaza PILOT abatement. That is $14.7M more in abatement than would be approved in any other Tennessee county, as Shelby County is the only county in the state administering residential PILOTs. See below public documentation:
- Mayors Letter and EDGE Term Sheet
- EDGE Poplar Plaza Project Summary
- City Tax Bill for 3486 Poplar / Parcel# 04405200001c
- City Tax Bill for 3485 Plaza / Parcel# 04405200002
- County Tax Bill 3486 Poplar / Parcel# 04405200001c
- County Tax Bill for 3485 Plaza / Parcel# 04405200002
MCCLM Corrections:
From my previous blog, the following overall inconsequential corrections, as shaded in light green, were made for the favorable RDX and Aesthetic Management PILOTs. My RDX pre pilot mistake came as a result of calculating it using a 15 yr term as opposed to the correct 6 yr term. And the Aesthetic Management correction was due to the fact that I incorrectly assumed it was in the City, and it has been corrected, to only include County taxes. Additionally, the other pre pilot figures were only slightly corrected to reflect the exact amounts on the pulled tax bills.
In the current environment, both Aesthetic and RDX are reasonable PILOTs and work for the taxpayer. See corrected table and previously published table below:
As originally appeared in previous blog.
Mayor, I look forward, hopefully this week, to the corrected weekly update. Thank you.