Clark, City Reach 20-Year PILOT Pact
The City of Worcester and Clark University have reached an agreement under which Clark will make payments in lieu of taxes to the city for the next 20 years.
The PILOT agreement was made effective today. Clark, a private, nonprofit university, is not required by law to pay property taxes to the city.
Under the new agreement, the university will pay $262,000 this year. That amount will increase by 2.5 percent annually for the next 20 years.
The agreement covers 20 tax-exempt Clark properties. Clark currently pays about $75,000 in property taxes on non-exempt properties, according to the university.
Proceeds of the arrangement will directly support the Worcester Public Library and will pay for improvements to the Main South neighborhood, where Clark is located.
In a joint press release, Clark and the city said the university's payments will also put $1.5 million toward an effort to close Downing Street between Florence and Woodland Streets in order to create a pedestrian plaza.
The plaza would coincide with an effort to make streetscape improvements to Main, Maywood, Downing and Beaver Streets as part of a project to create a Main South "gateway."
The city council's economic development committee has been pushing for PILOT programs for the city's exempt colleges and universities in recent years.
Last year, the city struck a PILOT deal with Worcester Polytechnic Institute that calls for WPI to pay $9 million over 25 years. In late 2008, the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences agreed to pay between $1.25 million and $1.5 million to the public library over 25 years.
Click here and here to read more about the city's taxing relationships with its colleges and universities.
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