Victoria’s three shopping centres are once again among the highest-paying taxpayers in the city, according to the city’s 2013 municipal report.
Mayfair Shopping Centre boosted city coffers with nearly $4.2 million last year, while Hillside Centre and The Bay Centre paid a combined $5.2 million in property taxes.
Rounding out the top five were the Atrium and other properties owned by Jawl Properties and its affiliated businesses.
Jawl’s joint purchase of a 2.3 hectares of land behind the B.C. legislature means the company will pay significantly more in property taxes next year as it solidifies its dominant development plans in Victoria.
“Our company regards Victoria as a positive place to do business and we feel very fortunate to be able to live and work in such a spectacular city,” said Robert Jawl, head of investments at Jawl Properties.
Jawl said he prefers to hold onto and manage buildings once constructed, rather then sell them on to investors.
“Through long term ownership and management we are also able to learn a great deal about tenant preferences and building operations, which influences how we go about conceiving new projects,” he said.
Most of the top 10 properties saw little to no movement from the previous year.
The Fairmont Empress Hotel had the most expensive piece of real estate in the Inner Harbour with about $1.3 million in corporate taxes, the Delta Ocean Pointe Resort paid half a million dollars for its Vic West waterfront space and the Grand Pacific Hotel was levied about $644,000.
The CIBC/Standard Life building was taxed $854,000 for its expansive portion of the 1100-block of Douglas St.
Other significant taxpayers include the B.C. Transit bus depot, Canada Safeway stores (now Save-on-Foods) and the Greater Victoria Harbour Authority.
The top 30 corporate taxpayers netted $27.3 million for the city in 2013. Schools accounted for $51.6 million in property tax revenues.
See the complete list by searching “annual report” on the City of Victoria’s website at victoria.ca.
Taxing time
Top five corporate taxpayers in Victoria:
• Mayfair Shopping Centre: $4.2 million
• Jawl Properties: $3.3 million
• Hillside Centre: $3.06 million
• The Bay Centre: $2.17 million
• Empress Title Corp: $1.24 million
