Developer Tommy Spinosa is delinquent on his 2009 property taxes on the 120-acre tract of land he is trying to develop into the Rouzan TND. According to the public notices published Saturday in The Advocate, Spinosa’s 2590 Associates, the legal entity that owns Rouzan, has not paid two separate tax bills on the property, totaling nearly $146,000. Those properties are assessed at more than $13 million, according to parish tax director Octave Anthaume. Spinosa, whose son Tommy Spinosa III is now managing the Rouzan project, has until June 1 to pay the late taxes, after which time the property will go up for sheriff’s sale. Even if that were to happen, however, Spinosa would have three years in which to buy back the property.
This isn’t the first time Spinosa has fallen behind on Rouzan’s property taxes, nor is it the only property tax bill he hasn’t paid yet this year. He still owes more than $18,000 on his East Lakeshore Drive home, valued at $1.7 million, and more than $4,600 on a Perkins Road property he owns across the street from Rouzan. He was delinquent paying property tax on those properties both last year and the year before. In 2007, in fact, Rouzan was auctioned at a June sheriff’s sale but was later redeemed by Spinosa.
Paying property taxes late can be costly, with interest accruing at 1% a month and penalties of 5% if properties are auctioned, but it’s not uncommon. Some 15,500 property owners received delinquent notices that were mailed April 1, according to Anthaume. The 11,500 or so who had not paid by April 30 were listed in Saturday’s public notices. Based on past years’ experience, Anthaume expects about 5,500 property owners will still be delinquent by the June sheriff’s sale. “Generally, when somebody sees their name in the paper, that’s a pretty big stick to get them to pay,” he says.
Spinosa III did not return a call for comment, but at least one local developer who knows the market well but asked not to be identified says it’s neither surprising nor particularly ominous that Spinosa is late paying his property tax bills. “If you can’t borrow money to pay things that are more critical, it just becomes a lending tool at some level,” he says. “In this lending climate there just isn’t any lending going on, and so when something comes due you just don’t have any other choice.”
