148 State St. Photo courtesy of Colliers International
A conservative legal advocacy group filed suit against the city of Boston on behalf of commercial landlords who claim they suffered retaliation for challenging inflated property tax assessments.
The class-action lawsuit, filed in Suffolk Superior Court, represents the owner of 148 State St., an office building that has suffered from declining occupancy since COVID, and other commercial landlords who may allege overcharges. It estimates at least 60 properties have been identified as being potential plaintiffs.
The Pioneer New England Legal Foundation claims the city has systematically targeted property owners who filed requests for abatements through the state’s Appellate Tax Board.
Boston officials raised the city’s average residential tax bill by 13 percent this month to offset declining commercial property values caused by office vacancies following the COVID-19 pandemic.
The 148 State St. property was acquired for $41 million in 2017 by Harbor Trading USA Inc., the U.S. investment vehicle for a Berlin family, according to an announcement at the time by a brokerage involved in the sale.
The 64,500 square-foot building is currently assessed at $22.4 million and has a $290,262 tax bill coming due for the first six months of 2026, according to assessors’ records.
The complaint states that the building’s owners filed appeals of their assessments in 2023, 2024 and 2025 with the city’s Assessing Department, but were denied. It filed appeals with the state board, which are pending.
When assessments were issued in January 2024 and January 2025, the city “artificially inflated the assessed value” solely because the owners had sought a tax abatement the previous year.
Physical property record cards kept on file at the Assessors’ Office contained notations such as “ATB Dispute” below a line item adding back to the city’s estimate of a property’s lost value, the complaint states.
By contrast, commercial properties that did not file ATB appeals in fiscal 2023 or 2024 did not include the additional valuations, the lawsuit claims.
“The City annually determines the fair market value of nearly 180,000 parcels and just one in every 200 end up in dispute. There is a well established and clear legal process for any property owner to appeal who believes their valuation is too high, including this plaintiff,” a city spokesperson responded.
The complaint seeks a permanent injunction against the city and restitution for property owners. It also claims violation of the plaintiff’s First Amendment rights to challenge government action and file appeals with quasi-judicial administrative agencies.
Mayor Michelle Wu has previously denied any pattern of retaliation against property owners that file ATB disputes.
“The city has started making notes in the documents so everyone is on the same page about why something has been adjusted or not adjusted,” Wu told Banker & Tradesman in June after the notations were first revealed by the Pioneer New England Legal Foundation. “The process of going through to the ATB can take some time, and in the meantime, sometimes the city will make adjustments despite the ongoing [ATB] dispute. Most of the time that is when there are facts in question… and we had our numbers wrong.”
Pioneer New England Legal Foundation attorney Frank Bailey said the state Department of Revenue and city of Boston’s assessing department have ignored the group’s requests to discuss the dispute.
DOR Commissioner Geoffrey Snyder “disclaimed any responsibility for this process, a proposition with which we completely disagree. We think it’s clear the commissioner has a responsibility to oversee this, and has declined to meet with us despite multiple offers,” Bailey said during a media briefing Wednesday. “We have not heard anything from the city assessor at all.”
A DOR spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.
“We have had no meaningful response, so we were brought to this as our last chance,” Bailey said. “But this cannot continue.”
Editor’s note: This report has been updated with a response from the city of Boston.
