CANADA

Tim Hortons founder spent up to $10M a year subsidizing his luxury Nova Scotia resort
CBC News
How do you value a property when there is no other quite like it? That is at the heart of a dispute between the Fox Harb'r Resort on the Northumberland Strait and Nova Scotia tax assessors. The owners say a $19.9-million assessment used for property tax purposes is far too high given the resort's huge losses, which run into the millions every year.

NATIONAL

Companies still have way too much office space, and they can't sell it
CNBC
How soft? According to Elizabeth Ptacek, senior director of market analytics at commercial real estate information and analytics company CoStar, there is currently 232 million square feet of surplus commercial real estate up for sub-leasing. To put those numbers into perspective, Amazon's HQ2 is 8 million square feet. Even more telling, the 232 million square feet is twice the level of surplus from before the pandemic.

New survey finds 37% of small businesses delinquent on October rent
Illinois Policy 
A new survey found 37% of America's small business owners were unable to pay rent on time or in full during October, citing inflation, rising rent, labor and gas costs for the growing delinquency. Alignable's monthly business report said 59% of entrepreneurs reported less consumer spending in October than the month before. During September, business owners reported a 30% delinquency rate.

Wall Street Landlords in US Squeezed by a Surge in Tax Bills
Bloomberg
A surge in property tax bills in states such as Texas, Florida and Georgia is stinging landlords. Single-family rental company American Homes 4 Rent expects its Texas property taxes will jump more than 20% this year, according to an earnings release Thursday. Rival Invitation Homes Inc. said last week that its tax bill this year will climb 7% to 8% due to higher costs in areas such as Florida and Georgia.

Too many office buildings, not enough housing
AXIOS
Conversions of office buildings into apartment units are picking up — they hit a high last year and are poised to grow even more, according to a new report from RentCafe, Axios' Kate Marino writes. Why it matters: America had a housing shortage even before the pandemic drove demand for larger living spaces. Conversions are one way to attack the problem, especially if office building occupancy remains depressed.

ARIZONA

Prop 130 could restore long-defunct property tax break for veterans
Arizona PBS
“I'm an Air Force veteran and the primary reason I'm supporting it is because it offers disabled veterans a reduction in their property taxes,” said Gallowitz, founder and CEO of the veteran-focused consulting firm Vanguard Veteran. “This proposition also helps with widows and other certain people with disabilities.”

FLORIDA

St. Petersburg needs its business tax exemption
Tampa Bay
On Tuesday, our St. Petersburg community will be asked to either vote yes or no on the referendum for the economic development ad valorem tax exemption. The St. Petersburg Area Chamber of Commerce is in support of the referendum and here's why. This tax exemption is both an incentive tool and investment tool to ensure that our city remains competitive with other local Tampa Bay municipalities that already have this tool in place, and other states that offer incentives that do not currently exist in Florida.

GEORGIA

Mexican company to build $200M, 295-worker bakery in Georgia
The Seattle Times
A Mexican bakery will be turning out more bread in south Georgia, announcing a larger bakery to go with a smaller one that it's already building. Mexico City-based Grupo Bimbo said Friday that it will spend $200 million on a new bakery in Valdosta and hire 295 workers.

MAINE

Bangor's once-thriving mall is nearly empty. It doesn't have to be.
Bangor Daily News
Since then, attendance at those fairs has dropped due to COVID, but the fair begun by businesswoman Kathy Harvey still fills the mall with visitors two weekends a year. Harvey, who owns the nearby Furniture, Mattresses and More store on the mall campus, pays the mall owners $15,000 to rent out the space for the fair, which returns this weekend and next.

NEW HAMPSHIRE

Grafton County court to hear plaintiffs' call for statewide property tax injunction
sentinelsource.com
The opening round in the challenge to New Hampshire's system of funding public education will begin this Friday morning in Grafton County Superior Court with a hearing on the plaintiffs' motion for an injunction to prevent the state from levying the Statewide Education Property Tax.

Lebanon homeowners getting the worst of shift in property tax burden as valuations soar
Valley News
City officials are preparing residents for the prospect of significantly higher property tax bills in November due to the surge in residential home values versus nonresidential properties during the last year. Single-family homes in the city increased in assessed value by an average of 27% since April 2021.

WISCONSIN

Court rules Madison violated law on assessing big apartment building
Madison
The city of Madison violated state law by assessing large, multi-family apartments far below market values while assessing one large property at full value, a Dane County Circuit Court judge ruled. The city strongly disagrees with the ruling and intends to appeal.