‘Foundry’ receives tax refund
Washington County officials lowered the tax bill for an 8.2-acre parcel in a South Strabane Township shopping complex that had literally foundered.
Hillcrest Bank Foundry LLC of St. Louis will receive a refund of $14,778 in county taxes for the years 2011, 2012 and 2013, according to a unanimous vote Thursday by the Washington County commissioners.
The 104-acre development, which once boasted what a previous owner called the largest retaining wall in the Western Hemisphere, is near the Interstate 70 and 79 north junction.
When the shopping complex was known as The Foundry, it was home to J.C. Penney’s new, 100,000-square-foot store in 2007 and other retail businesses. The stores, however, were forced to close the next year because of land that shifted and caused cracks in floors and walls.
Hillcrest Bank foreclosed on the property.
J.C. Penney moved back to its longtime location in Washington Mall, a half-mile away, but that store was shuttered amid a round of Penney’s closings in 2014.
The strip-mall-style development at The Foundry stood empty and was considered a hazard until it was razed in 2013, but HCB Foundry LLC continued to receive a tax bill based on a usable structure, according to Bradley Boni, Washington County chief assessor.
“The building was effectively valueless because of its condition,” said Boni, who considered the tax refund a “correction.”
After the demolition, “the building value did not change as a result,” Boni wrote.
“The appeal on the J.C. Penney parcel was taken in 2008, and it was finalized in September 2015. There was one additional appeal, and it was on the large parcel surrounding the island of a parcel that J.C. Penney sat on. It stood to reason that HCB would have appealed both pieces, as the subsidence issues that occurred affected the entirety of the strip mall, which spanned parcel boundaries.”
The new management company of the former Foundry property, Staenberg Group, announced in 2013 it would rebuild the site as the Old Mill complex, now home to a Field and Stream store, Hobby Lobby and restaurants.
The tax bill for the property, as listed in Washington County records, is $58,682 for the county, $17,259 for South Strabane and $269,247 for the Trinity School District.