Business
No Tax On Private Building Leased By CWI
May 6, 2015 
A little known law allows landlords a tax exemption if they lease to an educational institution has added yet another dimension to the CWI land saga.
County records reveal that Sundance Investments has obtained a 100% tax exemption on a building ay 1360 S. Eagle Flight Way for the past six years. The Building is valued at $5,525,400 which means the owners save about $93,000 in property taxes.
The Ada County commishes grant the exemption each year based on an annual application for exemption.
Buildings also leased by CWI at 9300 Overland, 9100 Black Eagle Dr. are currently paying taxes. They are valued at $5.04 million and $4.04 million respectively and are owned by Sundance.
Chances are good that Sundance will save another $150,000 in taxes when they read this and realize they may qualify for more exemptions.
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Comments & Discussion
Comments are closed for this post.
May 6, 2015, 7:13 pm
So if you do not have to pay taxes BUT your charge the market rate for the lease then YOU MAKE MORE MONEY!
Nice way to make extra bucks and short change the rest of the tax payers that have to pay to provide fire, police, etc.
GAG!
May 6, 2015, 9:49 pm
Seems a little odd that Sundance has 3 buildings all leased to CWI and only 1 has the exemption.
Of course, everyone is picking on CWI- any guesses how many “exempt” properties are being leased to Boise State? UofI ? What about the Macy’s building being renovated to accomodate the Charter School Administrators? etc?
While Commissioner Dave Case is concerned about the CWI deal, maybe he ought to be concerned about all the tax-exempt Ada properties and how the Assessor drops their values off the notice so it’s impossible to collect the data on what tax dollars are being exempt for ALL the nonprofit owners (and education lessees).
Ada Assessor please change the policy and make an annual report on what properties are exempted: total dollars, top 10 exempt land owners by value, and a complete list available to the public.
So for example: to answer the question, how much tax does ADA forgo to St. Lukes? Or BSU? Or the Mormon church? etc.
EDITOR NOTE–we understand the other two buildings were first rented in the past year and only a portion are for CWI. They may apply for exemption of the CWI space. Wait and see. You can file a records request for the documents you seek.
May 7, 2015, 8:02 am
Regarding 3 buildings and 1 exemption. This is not much different than the homeowner’s exemption for a duplex where the owner lives in half and rents out the other half. Owners get an exemption only on the half they live in.
The question is– Does the owner reduce the rent charged to CWI? Or do they pocket the savings? If they pocket the savings then I don’t think that’s within the spirit of the law. I guess it increase their income which subjects them to higher income tax though.
I’m not a real estate lawyer.
May 7, 2015, 9:02 am
I second the question from boisecynic…..does the savings get passed on, or is it gravy for the landlord?
EDITOR NOTE–We don’t know how one could even tell if there is a savings passed along in the event of tax exemption.
May 7, 2015, 12:27 pm
This little know law shares the same component of 100% deductibility with another law which allows donations made to institutions of higher learning’s charitable foundations.
The real magic of this law is that donations of land are conveyed by “Gift Deed”, whereafter the foundation holds the property for a year and the then reconveys it to the school itself and magically the Gift Deed becomes a Warrantee Deed. The giftor eventually rerceived a tax reduction (dollar for dollar) in the amount the giftor and giftee agreed upon. In the instant case, the giftor was able to receive a “receipt” value for the donated land in an amount 250% higher than the tax appraisal. BSU gained a valuable piece of unarable swamp land. The scary part is that any defects on the gifted property are assumed by the giftee. I call it “indemification by expiration of time”. Neat trick.
May 7, 2015, 3:09 pm
Another example of the unfairness of the tax on property. It no longer has any relationship to the cost of services.
May 8, 2015, 9:21 am
In related gnus from CWI they have entered into a purchase agreement with B $ L Idaho 2,LLC to purchase 32.5 acres on the north side of the Nampa campus extending to Cherry lane. This would add to the 95+ acres on the current Nampa campus. Price is $25,000/ acre ($815,000) with a closing date of Tuesday May 12, 2015.
Seems to be a red hot rush to obtain property. Unknown whether an appraisal of this property was performed and there is no plans listed on their recently completed 25 year plan for use of this property.
EDITOR NOTE–Sam, our rough math indicates they did a lot better–appraisal or not– on that deal than the Boise parcel. Given your numbers, they paid 35 times more per acre in Boise over the Nampa purchase!
May 8, 2015, 10:56 am
So, perhaps the obvious question Why go to Boise at all when you can build a mighty fine building with the difference in purchase price and hazardous questions would be unlikely to arise?
May 8, 2015, 2:45 pm
They need a Boise campus because a majority of the students are from Ada County (53% vs 37%).
http://cwidaho.cc/info/facts-glance
CWI’s main campus was poorly placed from the get go and probably the reason that BSU decided to transfer over the properties to CWI.
May 8, 2015, 7:40 pm
Clancy wrote: CWI’s main campus was poorly placed from the get go and probably the reason that BSU decided to transfer over the properties to CWI.
Care to guess which property it was that BSU received from its’ Heritage Foundation?
Yep, you got it, and you are right it wasn’t the best location. The best location for the “extension University” out on Hiway 20/26 went begging and is now lost to time.
The Nampa purchase has a 100K penalty for backing out of the deal so this is probably a done deal.