PANDAMONIUM AT THE PALLADIUM: WORCESTER, MASSACHUSETTS PALLADIUM TO BE TORN DOWN?

According to the WORCESTER MAGAZINE, music venue the PALLADIUM (Worcester, Massachuttes) may be torn down for more expansive parking for the court house across the street as property taxes my be an issue with the primary metal/hardcore music venue in Massachuttes. No confirmation of this issue from the PALLADIUM management.

FROM WORCESTER MAGAZINE:

PANDAMONIUM AT THE PALLADIUM: Word spread to the Worcester Mag office pretty quickly on Tuesday that the owners of the Palladium were filing – or at least threatening to file – paperwork for the demolition of the music hot spot and regional Juggalo headquarters in order to create more parking for the courthouse across the street. Worcester attorney and Palladium owner John Fischer, when asked to comment on the rumors, said he hadn’t made a decision yet but added, “It has a lot to do with taxes.” Like a number of the city’s commercial property owners, the Palladium has seen a huge spike in its fiscal year 2012 assessment and subsequent tax bill, jumping from an assessed value of $689,000 in 2011 to $2.27 million this year. “We’re still debating what we’re going to do,” Fischer lamented. “We’ll know by August 1.”

THEATRE DISCREPANCY: How does the Palladium’s assessment compare to the city’s two other theaters, the ritzy Hanover and the biohazardous Paris Cinema? In 2011, the Paris had an assessed value of $576,000 which jumped to $2.1 million this year, despite the building’s vacancy since 2006. As for the Hanover, its assessment has held steady at $534,600 since 2008. Though the Hanover is a nonprofit and therefore not taxable, city assessor Bill Ford says the assessment for the theater is lower than the Palladium and the Paris because of its Tax Incremental Financing (TIF) deal, which literally overrides the assessed value of the building. (Without the TIF, the Hanover is worth $4.15 million.) Not so coincidentally, former city treasurer Tim Cronin, speaking to the city council on May 22 during their tax classification hearing, called the maneuver of not taking full assessed values of TIF’d properties’ (or any properties’ for that matter) into account “illegal” when setting the tax rate. According to him, any new growth not identified in the total assessed values unfairly falls on other taxpayers to cover with their taxes. Ford suggested that state laws around assessment practices and TIFs contradict themselves, each offering differing ways to factor the values of TIF’d properties into final budgets. … As for the surprising correspondence between the Paris Cinema and the Palladium in terms of assessed value, Ford noted that the Paris’ additional 10,000-square footage and mix of residential and commercial space was enough to off-set the condition discrepancies.

Thanks-Stay Metal, Stay Brutal-\m/ -l-