Elizabeth Center Apartments Urban-Renewal Corp. v. City of Elizabeth
Elizabeth Center Apartments Urban-Renewal Corp. v. City of Elizabeth
Opinion of the Court
In these two appeals
The Center is an affordable housing cooperative apartment corporation
In an earlier appeal filed by the Center, we addressed the City’s assessments for the years 2003 through 2005
In Judge Brennan’s recent opinion, the Tax Court determined that not only did the Center overcome the presumption
On appeal the City argues:
I. PROWITZ [Prowitz] DOES NOT CONTROL THIS CASE BECAUSE THE RESTRICTIONS ON SALE PRICE ARE NOT CONTAINED IN DEED RESTRICTIONS AND DO NOT RUN WITH THE LAND.
*284 II. THE TRIAL COURT SHOULD HAVE REJECTED MR. MANZIONE’S FIRST APPROACH BECAUSE IT WAS NOT BASED ON SALES THAT WERE EXPOSED TO THE MARKET.
III. THIS COURT SHOULD REJECT MR. MANZIONE’S SECOND APPROACH BECAUSE IT WAS NOT BASED ON SALES THAT WERE EXPOSED TO THE MARKET.
We find no merit to these arguments and hold that our decision in Prowitz does require the consideration of the sale restrictions in this case, even though they are not contained in a Master Deed or other recorded instrument.
At the outset, we note the well-settled principles that guide our review of Tax Court determinations. Our scope of review in these matters is circumscribed. We recognize the expertise of the Tax Court in state tax matters and will not disturb its rulings unless we find its rulings are arbitrary or its findings of fact are unsupported by substantial credible evidence in the record. We do not, however, defer to the Tax Court’s legal determinations. “Our review of those conclusions is de novo.” UPS v. Dir. Div. of Tax., 430 N.J.Super. 1, 8, 61 A.3d 160 (App.Div.), certif. granted, 216 N.J. 5, 75 A.3d 1160 (2013). The City’s challenge in this case focuses on the proper method for assessing the Center’s property, which is a legal question that we review de novo. Southbridge, supra, 4 N.J.Tax at 34-35 (citations omitted).
The history of the formation of the Center, its purpose to provide affordable housing to the residents of the City, and the nature of its property are set forth at length in Judge Brennan’s opinion and need not be repeated here. Elizabeth Center Apts., supra, 27 N.J.Tax at 199-201. In summary, as we also noted in our earlier opinion, the Center is “a not-for-profit corporation operating under the auspices of the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The building consists of a total of 260 low- and moderate-income co-operative apartments.” Elizabeth Center Apartments, Urban Renewal Corp., supra, (slip op. at 1-2).
The Center’s formation predated by decades the enactment of affordable housing statutes in this state as we know them today.
The thrust of the City’s argument in this appeal is that those restrictions on the sale price of shares, which have existed for almost fifty years, are temporary in nature. According to the City, the minimal principal balance of the existing HUD mortgage — originally almost $4.7 million dollars and, as of 2006, approximately $400,000 — can be satisfied at any time, if it has not already been paid. The Center can then amend its by-laws to free itself of the FHA’s restrictions. According to the City, because of the mortgage’s temporary nature, our holding in Prountz, supra, does not apply and the City, therefore, properly did not consider the restriction on sale price in its valuation of the Center’s property. We disagree.
As we discussed in Prowitz, governmental regulation, like a deed restriction, that limits the resale value of property, is a factor to be considered by a tax assessor when determining assessed value. Judge Brennan accurately and succinctly summarized our holding and reasoning in Prowitz before she applied its holding to the present case:
In Prowitz v. Village of Ridgefield Park, supra, the Appellate Division addressed whether the property assessment of a single-family residential unit, which comprised a portion of the municipality’s official affordable housing stock, must consider a deed restriction that limits the unit’s resale value to its initial purchase*286 price plus Consumer Price Index increases in order to ensure the unit’s continuing status as affordable housing. 237 N.J.Super. at 437 [568 A.2d 114]. The Prowitz court held that “while the maximum resale price obtainable under the deed restriction does not necessarily define assessable value, the resale restriction nevertheless is a factor that must be considered in fixing the assessment.” Id. at 439 [568 A.2d 114]. This court finds that the same holds true for the Taxpayer in the present matter. While individual Taxpayer members are enjoying home ownership at below-market financing, they do so without the ability to make a profit at the time of sale. This in turn helps to perpetuate the City’s low to moderate income housing stock.
The rationale of the Prowitz opinion was stated concisely and articulately and thus bears repeating:
We ... deem the restriction here analogous to value-depreciating government regulation____
We note, moreover, the conceptual similarity between the deed restriction here and the protective statute the Tax Court addressed in Schwam v. Cedar Grove Tp., supra. In both, the market value of the property, that is, the amount which a bona fide buyer would otherwise pay a bona fide seller in an arms-length transaction, is significantly affected by governmental action taken for the beneficent public purpose of advancing and protecting the housing needs of classes of persons legislatively determined to require housing assistance. The form of that assistance here relevant is the imposition of a value-depreciating burden upon private ownership. That direct burden is justified on the basis of paramount public policy. It is fundamentally fair then for the public to share that burden with private ownership at least to the extent of recognizing, for tax assessment purposes, the market-place consequences of the restriction. We agree with the observation of Judge Crabtree in Schwam ... that there is an apparent element of injustice in imposing an onus on municipal taxpayers that [i]nures to the benefit of the State as a whole. But that is the consequence of the Legislature having made no specific provision for the allocation of the ensuing tax burden between local and State government. It is also, of course, a consequence of the nature of this State’s real property tax base. But these are not matters before us or which the judiciary has a present competence to correct.
Although the Prowitz decision involved a deed-restricted property, this court does not interpret that decision to exclude the non-deed restrictions imposed on the Taxpayer.
[Elizabeth Ctr. Apartments Urban Renewal Corp., supra, 27 N.J.Tax at 211-12 (quoting Prowitz, supra, 237 N.J.Super. at 443-44, 568 A.2d 114 (citations omitted)).]
In Prowitz, supra, 237 N.J.Super. at 442-43, 568 A.2d 114, we determined that the impact of “value-depreciating government regulations,” including those that required a deed restriction’s limiting sales in affordable housing projects, must be taken into account in a municipality’s assessment of a property where its purpose is dedicated to a “paramount public policy” goal.
In light of our agreement with Judge Brennan’s decision regarding the impact of the restriction on the shareholder’s certificates, we find that the City’s remaining arguments are without sufficient merit to warrant further discussion in a written opinion. R. 2:11-3(e)(1)(A) and (E). The court’s calculation of the Center’s property’s proper assessment for 2006 and 2007, applying the method adopted in Southbridge, supra
Affirmed.
We consolidated these appeals for the purpose of issuing a single opinion.
As noted by Judge Brennan, the Appraisal Institute defines a cooperative as a " 'form of ownership in which each owner of stock ... receives a proprietary lease on a specific apartment and is obligated to pay a monthly maintenance charge that represents the proportionate share of operating expenses and debt service on the underlying mortgage, which is paid by the corporation.’ ” Elizabeth Center Apts., supra, 27 N.J.Tax at 199, n. 1 (quoting Appraisal Institute, The Appraisal of Real Estate, 127 (13th ed. 2008)).
Elizabeth Center Apartments, Urban Renewal Corp. v. Elizabeth City, No. A-3383-06, 2007 WL 4355517 (App.Div. December 14, 2007).
We also noted that contrary to the Center’s argument, ”[t]he judge did not ignore the restriction on sale; rather he pointed out that outside sales had to be
In this case, Judge Brennan found
... that the [Center] presented sufficient evidence to overcome the presumption of validity attached to the City's original tax assessment. Both the [Center] and the City's expert acknowledged that the Subject Property as restricted is a market in and of itself....
The search for comparable sales most similar to the Subject Property was a problem that both expert appraisers acknowledged____ With a lack of comparable outside sales, the focus then shifts to the sales within the Subject Property.
[Elizabeth Center Apts., supra, 27 N.J.Tax at 208.]
Also, It is notable that the restriction could not be incorporated at inception as a deed restriction in the Center's master deed because that type of recording device did not exist until years later. See N.J.S.A. 46:8D-1 to -18 ("The Cooperative Recording Act of New Jersey”).
That "method of valuing the subject property places predominant reliance on the sales of stock and proprietary leases applicable to each apartment unit____" Southbridge, supra, 4 N.J.Tax at 37.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.