GUILDERLAND — The town and Crossgates Mall have settled two more tax lawsuits that will save the mall millions more in property taxes. 

An Albany County Court judge OK’d the settlement on March 22. 

The two sides agreed to set Crossgates’ 2020 assessed value at $258 million and its 2021, 2022, and 2023 assessments at $177 million.

For the 2024 tax year, the assessed value was also set at $177 million.

Neither the town nor Crossgates’ parent company, Pyramid Management Group, immediately responded to a request for comment. 

Late last month, acting county Supreme Court Justice David Weinstein clarified his December ruling, which both sides had appealed and have now agreed to drop, setting the assessments. The Feb. 27 decision led to an agreement between Guilderland and Crossgates over the mall’s 2020 and 2021 tax suits, which earlier had been combined into one certiorari case. 

The settlements will drain millions of dollars from the coffers of taxing jurisdictions in Guilderland. 

A legal notice from the district states its intention to issue $4.99 million in bonds to pay off the debt. The Enterprise has calculated Guilderland taxing entities — the town, its schools, libraries, Albany County, and certain fire departments, among them — owe the mall $7 million in back-taxes for the two tax years. 

Guilderland’s Assistant Superintendent for Business Andrew Van Alstyne said that the $4.99 million included the repayment owed by the Guilderland Public Library as well as the school district; the school district’s portion is about $4.75 million, he said.

Since Guilderland’s 2019 property revaluation, the school district has drained its reserve for tax certiorari cases, having spent $5.7 million on court-ordered refunds prior to the 2020 and 2021 Crossgates settlements.

The reserve depletion has led the district to borrow the money needed to pay back any future tax refunds. The bond will be paid back over the course of a decade. 

According to court papers, refunds are to be issued to Crossgates, with interest, within 60 days of the judge’s order. 

Guilderland’s tax rolls were first hit in December when the court sided with Crossgates in its valuation of the property. Weinstein determined the mall’s own appraisal for 2020 and 2021 was the “most consistent” analysis of the property’s value, and ordered that the town’s “assessment rolls are to be corrected accordingly, and any overpayments of taxes are to be refunded with interest.”

Crossgates’ 2020 and 2021 assessments were then lowered to $258 million and $177 million, respectively. The town had valued the property at $282.5 million for both years. 

Both sides appealed the decision. 

The dispute over the decision centered on Pyramid’s request to local taxing jurisdictions demanding that, in addition to the court-ordered back-taxes it was due, the taxing entities also apply the equalization rate when determining the company’s refund for the 2022 and 2023 tax years. 

In earlier court filings, the town said the mall’s valuation should be fixed at $177 million for 2022, 2023, and 2024, while Crossgates argued its valuation should be adjusted based on the equalization rate.

For 2020 and 2021, when the equalization rate was 100 percent, Crossgates paid about $7 million and $6.7 million in property taxes, respectively, approximately $4.8 million and $4.6 million of which was school taxes.

For 2022, the town’s equalization rate was 91 percent, which would have resulted in an assessed value of $161 million. That year, the mall paid about $6.3 million in taxes on its approximately $234 million assessment, approximately $4.3 million of which was school taxes.

For 2023, Guilderland had an equalization rate of 85 percent, which would have given Crossgates an assessment of $155.5 million. 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, approximately $4.4 million of which was school taxes.