THE GUARDIAN has had more than a few discussions about how and why the City/Urban Renewal paid so much for the property they bought and how the purchases have impacted assessed values for all Caldwell Commercial property.
It all boils down to the fact there is no incentive to haggle on prices with people when you are a government entity buying real property. Why you ask? Simple, the job of government is to spend their budgets and get property values as high as they can as quick as they can. Property values go up and property tax go up too.
Caldwell East Urban Renewal really does not care how much they pay for property. They know how the Assessor has to value property and will use their purchases in computing "market values" for all property. They will get their money back and more when the Assessor uses Urban Renewal purchases to compute the new and improved values for everyone else. Property values go up in the Urban Renewal District, everyone gets to pay more property taxes and the cash rains down on the UR district.
This all works well when times are booming and people are making money. However, the economy is in the tank and businesses are folding right and left. Now they get hit with their new assessed values and people are rightfully screaming foul.
Team Garret and the Urban Renewal crew paid way too much for the property they bought and they know it. The Mayor took eminent domain off the table even to the lament of the Oppenheimer Development people. The people selling property could hold out for virtually any price they wanted. Once the City started paying stupid prices for property the "appraisers" used the city purchases for comps to give their learned determinations on what values are.
This is yet another example of greed and a management/leadership vacuum in Caldwell causing commercial property taxpayers all manner of grief. People who have property downtown probably wish they were paying more taxes but for the right reasons not this one.
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