[T]he town of Jay should start getting paid at least some of the more than $2 million it is owed by its largest taxpayer, Jay Peak Inc.
Taxes in Jay were due Oct. 14. However, no payment came to the town by that deadline to cover the taxes for the resort and its related properties.
Michael Goldberg, a court-appointed receiver overseeing the resort and associated properties in the town following fraud allegations against Jay Peak’s owner Ariel Quiros, recently met with town officials. He said at that meeting he would start making payments on the unpaid tax bill at the start of the new year.
The resort, along with its related properties, have a total value of about $120 million on the town’s grand list, according to public records. And taxes from Jay Peak Inc., including all the condos at the resort, represents about two-thirds of all property taxes for the town.
According to minutes of the meeting between Goldberg and town officials, the tax bill for the resort and its properties is $2,058,245.
A onetime 8 percent late payment penalty has been added to that bill, totaling $164,159. Also, interest is accumulating at a rate of 1 percent a month for the first three months, and 1.5 percent after that, adding another $20,552 to the bill so far, according to the minutes.
Goldberg told the town officials at the meeting that he would pay $1 million by Jan. 7, followed by installments of $211,000 by the seventh of each month after that, with the balance due by the May 15 “for the original tax amount only.”
“Michael asked how to remove the penalty and interest,” the minutes stated. Town Clerk Tara Morse told him that request would need to be heard by the town’s Board of Tax Abatement, and he agreed to wait for that meeting which will take place sometime in March.
“Michael stated that federal court pre-empts, but wants to do the right thing,” according to the minutes.
Goldberg could not be reached Friday for comment. Peggy Loux, chair of the Jay Select Board, declined Friday to comment.
Goldberg has been the receiver overseeing Jay Peak since April when federal and state investor fraud lawsuits were filed against Quiros and Bill Stenger, the resort’s former CEO and president. The lawsuits accuse the two men of misusing $200 million raised from immigrant investors through the federal EB-5 visa program as Quiro and Stenger developed several properties in the Northeast Kingdom, including building hotels at Jay Peak and Burke Mountain.
In addition to Jay, taxes related to projects and properties headed by Quiros and Stenger are also delinquent in the city of Newport and town of Burke. Newport is owed more than $55,000, while the outstanding amount in Burke tops $400,000.
Newport and Burke officials contacted Friday said they were not aware of payment arrangements that have been made for the delinquent taxes.
Priscilla Aldrich, Burke’s town clerk, treasurer and delinquent tax collector, said Friday she is not aware of any talk of partial payments on the overdue tax bill.
“They haven’t talked to us about that and we haven’t received anything yet,” she said.
In Burke, the bulk of the delinquent taxes are for a property that is home to the recently opened 116-room Burke Mountain Hotel and Conference Center.
The properties in Newport include several parcels of Main Street that had been slated for a four-story development proposed by Stenger and Quiros known as the Renaissance Block. It was to feature retail and office space as well as a hotel.
The site is now referred to as the “hole in the ground,” because buildings were razed but work stalled before construction began.
Also, another property in Newport is on Lake Road. That’s where the two developers had planned to convert the former Bogner plant site into a biomedical research center that never materialized. Federal regulators have termed that project, called AnC Bio Vermont, “nearly a complete fraud.”
Goldberg has said in previous interviews regarding late tax payments that he expected to pay them with proceeds from a settlement with Citibank. A federal judge in October approved the $13.3 million settlement Goldberg reached with Citibank stemming from a line of credit the bank extended to Quiros in March 2015.
Goldberg has also said he expected to present legal arguments to local officials seeking to waive the late fees and penalties that come with missing a tax payment.
