Laura Glesby photo
Tax Abatement Chair José Crespo, speaking in support of movie theater tax deal.
Alders voted to forgive more than $10,000 of interest on several years worth of unpaid taxes on “personal property” like movie screens, popcorn machines, and digital video projectors at New Haven’s last — now-closed — movie theater.
Local legislators took that unanimous vote on Aug. 5 during the most recent full Board of Alders meeting, which was held in the Aldermanic Chamber on the second floor of City Hall.
The alders voted to cut in half the interest owed by BTC New Haven LLC for personal property that it owns at 80 Temple St.
That’s the site of the former Bow Tie Criterion Cinemas, a nine-screen movie theater that operated downtown for nearly two decades before closing in October 2023.
During a July meeting of the Board of Alders Tax Abatement Committee, the movie theater company’s chief financial officer, Ron Statile, pitched alders on forgiving the $22,337.68 in interest the company owed on unpaid personal property tax bills for Grand List Years 2018, 2019, 2020, 2022, and 2023.
Statile said at the time that a city-hired firm called Tax Management Associates determined in 2021 that the movie theater company should pay more in personal property taxes for equipment it owns at the local theater, but that the company never received mailed notices with details of that tax assessment bump.
While declining to identify exactly what personal property BTC New Haven LLC has been assessed for at 80 Temple St., the city assessor told the Independent that examples of taxable personal property at a movie theater could include digital video projectors, movie screens, popcorn machines, overhead lighting, marquee signs, sound systems, cleaning equipment, alarms, arcade games, and ATMs.
The Tax Abatement wound up recommending that the alders cut the interest to ensure that the overdue personal property tax principal amount of more than $60,000 was paid in full.
On Aug. 5, the full Board of Alders took up the committee’s recommendation and approved reducing the overdue tax interest in half.
Fair Haven Alder José Crespo, who chairs the Tax Abatement Committee, advocated for his colleagues to approve the interest reduction.
“BTC LLC came before the Tax Abatement Committee and we were able to reach an agreement to reduce their interest to $11,168.84,” he said. “They will pay their taxes in full.”
The alders approved the reduction by unanimous consent.
Statile did not respond to a request for comment for this article. During the July committee hearing, he told the alders that the ex-movie theater landlord is actively looking for a new arts-related tenant for the former Bow Tie Criterion Cinemas space. “We didn’t think stripping it for retail would be a good use,” he said about that Temple Street site’s potential future. He also said the ground-floor movie theater space likely won’t be converted into new apartments.
Laura Glesby contributed to this report.