The Bell Center continues to escape the fate of almost all Montreal buildings and will see its tax bill drop for the fifth consecutive year next year.
The municipal assessment of the Montreal Canadiens’ home has decreased by approximately 40% since 2011, bringing with it the bill to be paid.
According to the City of Montreal, the Bell Center is currently worth 150 million, while it was valued at 256 million in 2011. At the same time, its property taxes fell from 10.8 million to 5.3 million over the same period. .
Groupe CH, owner of the Bell Centre, did not return a call to La Presse.
“The evaluations are made by the City assessor and they are made completely independently, with a method that is objective and recognized,” commented the president of Mayor Valérie Plante’s executive committee, Luc Rabouin, at the last meeting of the municipal council. He was responding to a question from a citizen who was outraged by this falling bill.
He stressed that the 2023-2025 land roll refers to the value of buildings as of July 1, 2021. “Do you remember what kind of context we were in? », added the elected official. “Commercial buildings in the city center, many have had much more limited growth than residential buildings and there have even been declines […] because of the pandemic. This explains the drop in the value of a building like the Bell Centre. »
However, another factor could help explain this significant drop in property assessment.
15 years ago, the Bell Center challenged its municipal assessment. In a decision, the Administrative Tribunal concluded that the Bell Center was worth 139 million for the 2004-2006 roll and 172 million for the 2007-2010 roll (the City wanted 230 million and the CH Group, 65 million).
There are three methods for assessing the property value of a building: cost, income and comparison. The cost method is based on the reconstruction value of the building (less depreciation); the income method, on the anticipation of income generated; and the comparison method, on the analysis of the land value of similar buildings.
In the case of the Bell Centre, the court favored the income method. Even if the decision only applies to the years 2004 to 2010, the City has decided to continue to apply its principles.
While the Bell Center loses value every year, other major Montreal performance halls are on the opposite trajectory. Despite the pandemic, City of Montreal assessors estimated that Place des Arts was worth 20% more in 2021 (283 million) than in 2018 (236 million). The value of the St-Denis Theater grew at the same rate, going from 7.1 million to 8.5 million. Slightly less sustained growth for the MTelus (former Metropolis), whose value increased from 4.4 million to 5.2 million.
Saputo Stadium, home of CF Montreal, followed the opposite path, going from 25 million to 23.1 million.
The Bell Center, “I would much rather it be more expensive,” said the current finance manager of the Plante administration, Benoit Dorais, in 2019, to QUB Radio. “If it’s worth more, it’s certain that there’s a way to get a little more money compared to the average. »
“It is not the elected officials who make the choice of the property assessment, we do not even have any right of inspection. […] The chief assessor is the one who has the power according to the law,” he said.
With Valérie Plante, Mr. Dorais announced on November 15 an increase in property taxes of 4.9% for the residential sector and 4.6% for the non-residential sector. However, this increase represents the average increase in invoices sent by the City, including the increase in property values. In fact, the City of Montreal reduces its tax rate almost every year for each $100 of assessment.
