Stelco land value

The City of Hamilton has put in an offer on the Stelco lands since councillors found out the value of that land has plummeted from $108 000 per acre to $100 per acre. That’s according to the municipal property assessment corporation, an arms-length provincial non-profit tasked with assessing all property in the province.

Hamilton’s mayor says he was informed a short time ago about MPAC’s reassessment of the Stelco lands, which mean millions in lost tax revenue. He says the city immediately started protesting.

“We know properties are selling from $300 000 plus an acre, how do you go from that to $100? What rational did you use? What comparators did you use? Silence.” Fred Eisenberger.

He says the city’s only recourse is to appeal to the province.

“Let them know what their arms length organization is doing to industrial values, that sets a precedent. All the other industries, Dofasco could say, well ours is a hundred bucks too.”

The new owner of Stelco is the only clear beneficiary to the low land valuation. After U.S. Steel Canada was sold to Bedrock and returned to the name Stelco, a trust called Land Co. was to be set up to administer future sale and development of the Stelco lands, about 800 acres on Hamilton’s waterfront, of which about 300 acres are still being used for steel making. Stelco pensioners were supposed to benefit from the sale of the land, but if land is $100 an acre, that will hardly help one pensioner, the mayor says.

MPAC says it only changed the value of about half the 800 acres at Stelco, the other half is still valued at $100 000 an acre. It says the other half was devalued to $100 because of its current state and condition including environmental contamination. MPAC says potential buyers have been deterred by the cost of remediating the land.