Who owns Columbia Island LLC and how did they get their taxes reduced ?

Written By: Talk of the Sound News

and why aren’t they paying fair market value tax rate? And how were repairs done to the building and Seawall without permits?
The Island off David’s Island was purchased in 2005 for 1.3 million, however, it is only being taxed at a rate of $187,000. Which is lower than last I looked 2 months ago, so they must have been approved for a tax reduction.
Work has been performed on the structure for 3 years. Sometimes up to 10 workers a day were on the site. a comparison of photos from 5 years ago and today show many improvements. So how is it that a property bought for 1.3 million and improved upon would get such a great tax break? Who is Columbia Island LLC? And why is the owner/owners hiding behind this corporation? Does anyone know who the real owners of this property are?

9 thoughts on “Who owns Columbia Island LLC and how did they get their taxes reduced ?”

  1. More info about Columbia Island
    I found this other aerial photo of Columbia Island using a website called Pictometry. It shows that the island is largely under water during high tide. The photo was dated July 2009.

    Also, a quick Wikepedia search found this:


    Columbia Island, known before 1941 as Little Pea Island, is an island in Long Island Sound and part of New Rochelle, New York. It is about 150 ft square. It is situated between Davids’ Island and Pea Island. CBS purchased it, and in 1940 began construction of a concrete foundation to support a transmitter building with emergency housing for ten workers, topped by a 410 foot (125 m) antenna tower for WCBS-AM (then known by the call sign WABC). [1] [2] The transmitter remained in operation until the 1960s, when the station was moved to nearby High Island.

    In 2005, the then-current owner of the island sought to demolish the old transmitter building and replace it with a private residence. [3]

    The [3] refers to this footnote: Kettner, Susan. “Board of Appeals on Zoning Agenda 6/7/2005 – 7:00PM”. City of New Rochelle, NY.
    I couldn’t find the agenda on the new NR website.

    Here is the wiki link —
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbia_Island_(New_York)

    I think this is all interesting because it is such a remote and small property. It is hard to imagine a residential building on it.

  2. Columbia Island – Bing aerial photo
    It looks like an unfinished project to me in this photo here. Not absolutely sure, but maybe they ran out of money.

    Here is a screen captured from Bing. I don’t know when it was taken. Maybe it is finished now. Can someone with a boat go and check it out and take some pictures?

  3. Would someone smart enough to create an LLC
    and spend 1.3 million to buy Columbia Island and have some big NYC attorneys front it be dumb enough to do work on the structure and seawall without permits? They did. The property assessment card shows no work or improvements. What would make them think they could do that? And what’s the purpose of doing superficial work to the structure. Basically window dressing. Could it be to create the appearance of a property worth more than it actually is if it’s to be sold to another gov’t entity? Or was it an investor that ran out of money and had bad timing? Who is Columbia Island LLC?

  4. Columbia Island – self dealing? Or just unbelievably good luck.
    What’s even more interesting is the fact that the island was bought just months before Mayor Bramson announced a deal to sell David’s Island to the County. Could there be some self dealing interests involved in this property? How is it possible that a multi million dollar Island and structure are being taxed at a rate less than a one bedroom co-op? Article of organization gave no info and calls to the NY attorney’s that represent Columbia Island LLC were unreturned.
    After the Domonic Procopio scandal was made public I believe nothing seems to be beyond the scope of this city’s corrupt nature. Think about it, If you bought that Island for 1.3 million and did major construction to it do you think YOU would be taxed at a fmv rate of 187,000 or about 3,500.00 a year in total property and school taxes?
    Maybe there is nothing here, or just maybe there is.

    1. Search the property yourself
      go to New rochelle’s website. Go to the property portal and in the property address box type columbia island. you can see the property tax card and view the building department card which shows no work done. Then search for the sale and you’ll see it was 1.3 million in 2005. They’ve only been paying about 4,000 a year in taxes since they bought it and fixed it up, now they had them reduced. If someone can find the real owners of the property we’ll know much more about what’s going on.

      1. In New Rochelle, I don’t think assessments ever change
        In New Rochelle, I don’t think assessments ever change, except to go down through the grievence process. New Rochelle doesn’t ever look to see what properties are selling for vs. what their assessment is. You’d think that would be somebody’s job but apparently it isn’t. So if you’ve never grieved your taxes your probably paying to much and what this system gives us is a very inequitable situation because you have to ask the city to reduce your assessment. CT cities and towns all reassess their properties every 10 years and they reems of documents to support their decisions and the process isn’t that complicated, but New Rochelle couldn’t even contemplate a reassement because NR doesn’t collect any kind of profit and loss or income and expense reports on any buildings.

      2. They change when work is done
        and work was done to that property. And the taxes should be around 30,000-40,000 but they are only 3,500. i don’t think it’s beyond the realm of possibility that the property was purchased with knowledge of a soon to be announced deal with the county and the property would have been much more valuable and possibly sold to the county also. The reduction in taxes
        AFTER improvements were made is unheard of. Like I said before, maybe there is nothing here but why can’t anyone find out who actually is behind Columbia Island LLC. And if it someone in local or county gov’t or someone with close ties then we all know exactly what is going on here. If it’s just someone who felt like buying the island that has been sitting empty for 60 years just before the city announces a planned sale of david’s island, and they didn’t get reassessed after the purchase and they didn’t get reassessed after the improvements and were able to actually get a reduction in taxes, I guess they’re just really lucky.

      3. I don’t think your
        I don’t think your assessment will change if you do work to your house, with or without a permit.

        I could be wrong, but my understanding is that the total of assessments in NR goes down every year because of tax certioraris and greivements which is 1 reason why the tax rate goes up so much year after year after year. I don’t think its ever gone up in the 12 years I’ve live in NR. One would think that with all the development downtown that assessments would go up, but all the downtown development is tax abated so that someone buying a $700,000 condo in the Trump Building will only pay $4,000 or $5,000 in property taxes while a comperable house will pay around $15,000 in property taxes.

        Doesn’t seem fair at all to me since these owners will get the same benefits that I do out of NR. Noam must think its a good idea otherwise he wouldn’t be pushing for Capelli/LeCount Square so hard, but the economic realities of today will prevent LeCount from ever going any farther than the drawing phase.

      4. Improvements to your property ABSOLUTELY increase your taxes
        There is an estimate of how much the improvements increased the value of the structure and you are reassessed based on the new higher number. That is why I don’t understand how Columbia Island LLC could have improved the property that was already under taxed and got an additional reduction especially when the city is rubber stamping rejections and sending everyone to small claims court. Who is Columbia Island LLC?

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