Clearview Mall property loses more than half tax value
The Clearview Mall in Center Township has been reassessed at less than half its original tax value following the sale of some of its stores.
On Thursday, July 11, local law firm Dillon, McCandless, King, Coulter and Graham proposed a solution for the Clearview Mall’s assessment appeal, which dates back to 2021. The proposal would set the fair market value for the mall property at $7.5 million, with an assessed value of $487,500.
The Butler Area School Board signed off on the assessment settlement at their meeting Monday night, followed by Butler County on Wednesday. According to county solicitor Julie Graham, the mall owners have also signed off on the settlement, bringing the appeals process to an end after three years.
“We do not believe we would get a higher assessed value if we litigated this matter further,” reads the proposed settlement decision.
In 2022, after the appeal was initially filed, the Clearview Mall owners subdivided the property and sold off some of its store spaces to third parties. The spaces included Boscov’s, Dunham Sports, Rural King and a Sears location that has since closed.
As a result, the assessment fell sharply from its original fair market value of $19,791,139, with an assessed value of $1,563,500.
Not helping matters was the state of the remaining mall, which fell from roughly 50% occupancy in 2021 to 15% occupancy in 2024. As a result, the fair market value of the property decreased for each of the three tax years, starting from $12.66 million in July 2022.
“The values have gone down in each of those years, and part of it’s based on different factors that affect value,” Graham said. “Those factors would include occupancy, how many stores occupy the mall, the income, the age of the building, things like that.”
