logo logo
Donate
    • Membership
    • Donate
  • Social Justice
    • Racial Justice
    • Climate Justice
    • Disability Justice
    • Economic Justice
    • Health Justice
    • Immigration
    • LGBTQ+
  • Civic News
  • Nonprofit Leadership
    • Board Governance
    • Equity-Centered Management
    • Finances
    • Fundraising
    • Human Resources
    • Organizational Culture
    • Philanthropy
    • Power Dynamics
    • Strategic Planning
    • Technology
  • CONTENT TYPES
  • Leading Edge Membership
  • Newsletters
  • Webinars

Nonprofit Newswire | Hotel Closes, College Opens, Commenters Growl

Rick Cohen
April 29, 2010

April 28, 2010; Source: Worcester Telegram | You have to read this article as much for the comments posted online as for the specific content. It is a story of a hotel in downtown Worcester, Mass. The owner defaulted on the mortgage and owes various lenders $16 million. Our guess is that its property tax payments were as infrequent as its mortgage payments. A federal judge has placed the hotel in the hands of a receiver.

Picture the situation: hotel built in 1982, allowed to deteriorate, parking garage across the street, both properties eyesores, rarely used anywhere near to capacity as other hotels in and around Worcester long ago drove this Crowne Plaza into oblivion. So the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences has stepped in and has offered to buy the hotel and garage for $16.8 million and convert it into student housing, classrooms, and laboratory space. The college will put $2 million into renovations, pay full taxes (like the hotel probably didn’t) for the first year, and make a payment in lieu of taxes amounting to 20 percent of assessed taxes thereafter.

You would think everyone would be ecstatic that the college is going to acquire, improve, and occupy the properties, generate a downtown activity presence that the failing hotel probably hasn’t done in years, and help downtown Worcester avoid looking like a small city ghost town as has happened to so many others. Plenty of comments to the Worcester Telegram suggest just the opposite, that this was the nonprofit college “stealing land”, removing properties from the tax rolls, and reducing tax revenues.

Sign up for our free newsletters

Subscribe to NPQ's newsletters to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

By signing up, you agree to our privacy policy and terms of use, and to receive messages from NPQ and our partners.

We need a full education campaign in the nonprofit sector that explains not only how many business properties don’t pay full taxes (let’s guess whether the Crowne Plaza got tax incentives to move to downtown Worcester in the first place back in the 1980s) and how a nonprofit replacing a semi-vacant, non-taxpaying eyesore is a heck of a lot better than what’s already there.

But the comments revealed something else. Worcester isn’t just hitting nonprofit colleges for PILOTs. It apparently gets payments from smaller nonprofits such as the Boys and Girls Club and something called Matthew 25, among others. With all the big city attention to taxing tax exempts, the sector had better pay attention to what’s happening in the small cities that are off the radar screen of the national newspapers.—Rick Cohen

About the author
Rick Cohen

Rick joined NPQ in 2006, after almost eight years as the executive director of the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP). Before that he played various roles as a community worker and advisor to others doing community work. He also worked in government. Cohen pursued investigative and analytical articles, advocated for increased philanthropic giving and access for disenfranchised constituencies, and promoted increased philanthropic and nonprofit accountability.

More about: Nonprofit News

Our Voices Are Our Power.

Journalism, nonprofits, and multiracial democracy are under attack. At NPQ, we fight back by sharing stories and essential insights from nonprofit leaders and workers—and we pay every contributor.

Can you help us protect nonprofit voices?

Your support keeps truth alive when it matters most.
Every single dollar makes a difference.

Donate now
logo logo logo logo logo
See comments

You might also like
Get Funds Flowing: Lessons from the Boston Foundation
Candace Burton
Amid Heatwaves, a Growing Concern Rises About Data Centers
Rebekah Barber
How to Navigate the Modern Nonprofit Job Search
Molly Brennan
How Can the Nonprofit Field Better Support Volunteerism?
Jan Masaoka
Return to Office: What’s Happening in the Nonprofit Sector and Why?
Sydney Nicole Sweeney
Latine Community Groups Mobilize to Defend Medicaid Against Cuts
María Constanza Costa

Upcoming Webinars

Group Created with Sketch.
July 24th, 2:00 pm ET

Organizing in Divided Times

The Relational Infrastructure We Need to Protect Democracy

Register
Group Created with Sketch.
September 24th-25th, 2:00 pm ET

Advanced QuickBooks for Nonprofits

Expert Guidance for Experienced QuickBooks Users

Register

    
You might also like
US Capitol Building
Trump Budget Bill Spells Trouble for Nonprofits
Isaiah Thompson
A group of about two dozen students, many wearing blue shirts, walk in the rain in front of the US House of Representatives.
How Nonprofits and Activists Can Oppose Trump’s “Big...
Matthew Rozsa
Conservatives Attack Nonprofits on Capitol Hill
Isaiah Thompson

Like what you see?

Subscribe to the NPQ newsletter to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

See our newsletters

By signing up, you agree to our privacy policy and terms of use, and to receive messages from NPQ and our partners.

  • About
  • Advertise
  • Careers
  • Contact
  • Copyright
  • Donate
  • Editorial Policy
  • Funders
  • Submissions

We are using cookies to give you the best experience on our website.

 

Non Profit News | Nonprofit Quarterly
Powered by  GDPR Cookie Compliance
Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.

If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.