GUILDERLAND — The town of Guilderland and Pyramid Management Group were recently on opposite sides of a decision that saw the assessed value of Pyramid-owned Crossgates Mall’s drop dramatically. But, as it turns out, no one was happy with the outcome. 

In the month since an Albany County court judge sided with Pyramid in its tax certiorari case against the town, both the plaintiff and the defendant have decided to appeal acting county Supreme Court Justice David Weinstein’s Dec. 13 decision, which ordered that Crossgates’ 2020 assessed value be lowered to $258 million and its 2020 assessment be dropped to $177 million.

The mall’s current value on Guilderland’s 2023 assessment roll is approximately $275.5 million. 

The ruling will place potentially millions of dollars back into Pyramid’s bank account; but, even as it stacks legal victories  on top of fiscal wins, the company appears to have yet to exact its pound of flesh. 

About a month after Weinstein held up Pyramid’s appraisal method over the town’s, the company filed notice with the Appellate Division of the Third Judicial Department in Albany that it would be appealing the lower court judge’s decision.

Pyramid did not respond to an Enterprise request for comment prior to publication.

A few days after Pyramid alerted the appeals court of its decision to challenge Weinstein’s ruling, the town of Guilderland did the same. 

In its informational statement Guilderland said its cross-appeal would “specify the issues proposed to be raised on the appeal, proceeding, or application for CPLR 5704 review, the grounds for reversal, or modification to be advanced and the specific relief sought on appeal.” The town “contends that the Supreme Court erred in reducing Petitioners’ real property tax assessments.” 

 The lower court petition was originally filed in July 2021.

Pyramid still has outstanding certiorari cases against the town, filed in 2022 and 2023.

As to why both sides continue to battle it out even after a decision has been made, that comes down to keeping the other guy’s hand out of your pocket. 

The dispute between the town and company centers on the value of  Crossgates for property tax purposes. Pyramid recently sent letters to local taxing jurisdictions seeking a refund on its property taxes for the past three years. 

Pyramid requested that, in addition to receiving back a portion of its once-paid taxes, the town, county, school district, and library also apply the equalization rate when determining the company’s refund for the 2022 and 2023 tax years. 

The town in recent filings argued that the requests would lower the company’s tax burden even further, resulting in greater reductions than ordered by the court. 

In 2023, when the equalization rate was 85 percent and the mall had an assessed value of $275 million, Crossgates paid taxing authorities in Guilderland about $6.1 million. 

In 2022, the mall paid about $6.3 million in taxes on its approximately $234 million assessment; that year, Guilderland’s equalization rate was 91 percent. For the two years prior to 2022, when the equalization rate was 100 percent, Crossgates paid about $7 million and $6.7 million in property taxes. 

With its actual lowered assessed value in addition to the additional burden it is seeking to relieve itself of, Crossgates isn’t really depriving local taxing jurisdictions of much-needed revenue, it’s just getting that value spread across the rest of the area’s taxpayers.

For example, for the four years that the mall received lowered valuations, Crossgates had a collective assessment of over $1 billion. With the new assessed values, $285 million would get shifted to other property taxpayers in town.

But for Crossgates, it would mean tax savings of over $7 million, and that number would go even higher if the mall is successful with lowering its assessment even further. 

But the town argues in its court filings that, once a court declares an assessment unlawful, unequal, excessive, or misclassified, its valuation should not be changed for the next three assessment rolls. In Crossgates’ case, the court determined an assessed value of $177 million be applied to the seven parcels that make up the mall for tax years 2022, 2023, and 2024. 

The town said in court documents it had case law on its side. 

Early next month, before any appeals court hearing, the two sides will go back before Weinstein to see if that’s the case.