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Davis Drive Property Tax Bill Details Revealed

The current owners of 6-8 and 10 Davis Dr. paid $183,000 in property taxes in 2011; click on PDF to the right for details.

Following last Friday's article, , several Patch users submitted comments asking for some clarification of the amount property tax currently being paid by the property owners at 6-8 and 10 Davis Dr., the site of the

Belmont community development director, Carlos de Melo, forwarded a copy of the secure property tax statements paid to the City of San Mateo in 2011 by the owners of the Davis Drive property. (See PDFs that accompany this article). This information is public and is available on the county's website www.sanmateocountytaxcollector.org/.

The current net value of the combined properties is $14,901,932. The total amount of taxes paid by Thomson Learning, Inc. (Cengage), owners of 6-8 and 10 Davis Dr. to the county in 2011, was $183,467.56. (6-8 Davis Dr.: $37,976.72; 10 Davis Dr.: $145,490.84)

 This amount includes special charges to parcel tax, San Mateo Junior College bond, and Sequoia Union High School District maintenance, Belmont Sewer Treatment Facility, and others. (For a breakdown of special charges, click on the PDF to the right.)

The is expected to vote on the revised put forth by Crystal Springs Uplands School at its July 19 meeting. The meeting will begin at 7 p.m. in the City Council Chambers of Belmont City Hall, One Twin Pines Lane.

For more information, go to www.belmont.gov.

 

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1Diane July 10, 2012 at 02:25 pm
Hi Joan, Isn't that 3rd photo above Hallmark Drive?
Steve Hayes July 10, 2012 at 02:42 pm
Joan
Mr.Bennan attached a better breakdown of the agencies benefiting from the $183K -you might want to attach that document. I assume that some portion of the tax bill will continue to be paid by CSUS - for example all of the sewer fees. It would be better if we knew what will continue to be paid. Over the weekend we were informed that Cengage had taken a $6 million write off on their Belmont real estate - documentedin their Annual Report. Book and Tax valuations are different but I wonder if the Tax Assessor is in the process of reducing the value of the properties - that should be a consideration.
Tim Hoffman July 10, 2012 at 03:11 pm
Steve-
Yeah, and after I back-of-the-envelope'd what approximate contribution these parcels' make to the Belmont / RWS Elementary District, I noticed that the County already provided this agency-level break-out detail in an appendix of the Belmont staff report (duh). Hey, at least I was really close! See page 95 of 97. http://www.belmont.gov/Upload/Document/D240008348/5A-PC-06192012Attach1.pdf
James Wright July 10, 2012 at 03:35 pm
Joan, what would the tax be if the property were sold at market rates? This could be a lot higher than $180,000 per year due to Prop 13. This might be a more relevant benchmark given the property's inability to find lessors and the possibility that it will thus be sold.
Jeff Selman July 10, 2012 at 04:13 pm
James - It is not known what are market rates. What is known is that Cengage (which was spun out of Thomson Learning several years ago by private equity) reported that it moved the last of its employees out of these premises in 2009 and in 2010 took a non-cash impairment charge in excess of $6 million on the value of the property. As a result, it is currently carrying the value of the property at approximately $9 million. The answer to Steve's question above whether Cengae is seeking a reassessment of the property to match the reduced book value has not been reported. Also, it is known that Cengage has recently restructured its debt, and yesterday Moody's downgraded its credit rating to Caa. Thus, it is reasonable to presume that Cengage is not looking to carry this property much longer. As for any buyer other than CSUS stepping up, the question would presumably be whether a company would like to own the property for its own use, or would the property instead be sold to a real estate manager who would look to lease it out (and then, the issue which you raise about locating tenants would become important in pricing out what a buyer would be willing to pay for the property).
Steve Hayes July 10, 2012 at 04:18 pm
James
Actually, taxes will be lower. The County assessed value is $14.9 million - that drives the $183K The company was carrying the assets at $15.1 million (Net Book Value), but last year they reduced that value by $6 million (look at their Annual Report). So at least at the time of Cengage's last fiscal year end the value was $9.1 million and that value was based on independent appraisals (market rates).
Joan S. Dentler (Editor) July 10, 2012 at 05:05 pm
Hi 1Diane....yes, I believe it is Hallmark Dr.....the caption is incorrect and it doesn't apply to this story, so I have removed it. Good catch!
Joan S. Dentler (Editor) July 10, 2012 at 05:19 pm
Hi James, Tim and Steve....all great questions, and you guys are going to find this hard to believe, but municipal finance and tax assessment are not my areas of expertise:)....but what I CAN do is lob these questions to the experts within the city and have them respond.

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George Metropulos June 19, 2013 at 12:42 pm
First thing I would ask is who did you talk you, and have you followed up? Was this something youRead More got in writing? Did they give you a timeline that has lapsed?
Steve Hayes June 19, 2013 at 12:54 pm
The practical solution - just paint it yourself. Sounds like a very small job and the City alreadyRead More agreed it is a good idea.
George Metropulos June 19, 2013 at 12:59 pm
Do you really think the city is waiting for someone to get killed?
Michele Moyer June 16, 2013 at 09:17 am
Thanks Joan - there is one in the sub-head of the blog I posted on School-Force Voices today; wouldRead More love if it could be corrected. Been scratching my head til I saw this post :)
Joan S. Dentler (Editor) June 16, 2013 at 11:20 am
Sorry about that! There's nothing I can do on my end----it's system-wide bug, which I believe isRead More fixed now. :)
Belmont96 June 13, 2013 at 09:40 am
I also preferred the 'old' Patch - this format makes it difficult to find articles that are aren'tRead More that old. One example was the informative article on who was running for city Council. I was having problems finding it and finally had to query on a candidate's name to find. I don't recall having that issue with the original format. Also our neighborhood had a water break line and we were without water for some hours a few Sundays ago. I tried to find out the reason for the break (because of construction or old pipes?) and could not find anything on the Patch regarding this. Not sure if they just didn't report or I just couldn't find.
Judi June 14, 2013 at 07:28 am
Not crazy about the new Patch either. Also, I want to post-for sale, and this section is crowdedRead More with announcements, etc.
Pearl June 14, 2013 at 04:15 pm
Another thing that needs to be fixed: When you go to leave a comment, it takes you over to whereRead More you have to sign in, you sign in expecting to be returned to the article on which you are commenting, but it, instead, takes you back to some different article. PLEASE FIX THIS!!!! Also, please reinstate the feature where we can sign up to be notified if/when more comments are made concerning the article(s) we've commented on so we can follow the conversation. Thank you.
Christa Bigue (Editor) June 10, 2013 at 01:50 pm
Thanks Sam! You should also post this Half Moon Bay (halfmoonbay.patch.com) and Pacifica PatchRead More (pacifica.patch.com)! I'm sure our readers would appreciate the great tip!
Michael Williams June 9, 2013 at 04:12 pm
Strongly suggest Patch readers check all the YELP reviews of this business. Very uneven experiencesRead More reported.
don torre June 4, 2013 at 06:55 am
what do the local Belmont restaurants think of this? do these people pay a license to the city?
Joan S. Dentler (Editor) June 4, 2013 at 07:15 am
Hi Don....thanks for your question. Yes, Off the Grid does pay a licensing fee to the city, and soRead More far, we haven't heard any concerns by local restaurants. The food trucks provide an option to a traditional restaurant---pick up and go----and they are only around 4-5 hours per week (on Mondays, typically not a big restaurant night anyway). Have you tried the food yet?