They are overwhelming assessors and creating a yearslong backlog at a state board that hears the cases, as well as costing taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost tax revenue and legal fees. Corporate attorneys are deploying the strategy in an effort to slash property taxes, often by hundreds of thousands of dollars, in communities around the country.ĭespite an outcry over the problem several years ago, and a vow by Maine lawmakers to help towns fight the appeals, the onslaught of requests has continued around the state. Companies argue that the stores are so specially designed that they are functionally obsolete nearly as soon as they are built, and will lose much of their value as soon as the retailer leaves. Known as the “dark store” theory, the argument being made by retailers is that their open, bustling stores are equivalent to ones that failed and closed. “They say we should be valuing their store equivalent to a store that’s been closed and sold with restrictions on it,” said Dave Martucci, the Thomaston assessor who called the situation “absurd.”
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