The Butler Area School District and Butler County will pay a firm $6,000 to determine the value of the Clearview Mall. The mall’s owner filed a lawsuit in the Butler County Common Pleas Court seeking to more than halve its property tax bill.

Clearview Mall’s owners look to cut their property tax bill by nearly 60%, which would cost Butler Area, Center Township and the county more than $120,000 a year. The school district and county plan to fight back.

Clearview Mall Capital Holding LLC, the company which owns the Center Township mall, appealed the county’s property value assessment, of a $1.56 million assessed value, equivalent to a $19.79 million fair market value. Instead, the owners argue, the mall should have an assessed value of $679,400, or lower, which would have the mall at a $8.6 million fair market value.

Under the county’s assessed value, the owners would pay $162,598 to Butler Area, $43,179 to the county and $11,019 to Center Township, for a total of $216,797 in property tax.

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