Rockport assessors to decide Rec’s value

ROCKPORT – Assessors are expected to rule at their Monday night meeting on the disputed value of the Midcoast Recreation Center, assessors agent Tom Edwards says.

The owners of the center, Stuart Smith of Camden, Rick Bresnahan of Hope and undisclosed silent partners, concede that it cost about $5.2 million to build the center.

The 61,239-square-foot center, located off Route 90, includes a full-sized ice hockey rink, tennis courts and dance and workout studios.

But Smith, Bresnahan and an appraiser they hired argued that the property is worth only $2.2 million on the real estate market as either a for-profit ice rink or as a building to be converted into a combination of offices and warehouse.

Edwards set the value of the property at $5.2 million.

The town hired an independent firm, The Sherwood Group, to study the property and method used by the town in setting the value.

Lowell Sherwood Jr. issued his report to Edwards earlier this fall and suggested a formula using the estimated cost of construction depreciated by 20 percent to 34 percent.

In a memo to assessors, Edwards wrote that Sherwood’s work supports his contention that the best method to use in assessing the value of the Midcoast Recreation Center is the cost approach, which considers building replacement costs, less depreciation and other reductions.

Edwards recommended that on April 1 the total property value be set at $3.8 million.