Waiving the Required Filing Date Deduction Application for the Tire Rack

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May 8, 2014 South Bend Common Council City of South Bend 227 W. Jefferson Blvd. South Bend, Indiana 46601 -1830 RE: Resolution Number: 4198 -12 South Bend Common Council Members, 7101 Vorden Parkway South Bend IN 46626 800 428 8355 574 287 2345 FAx 574 236 7707 www.urerack.com This letter is written to respectfully request reinstatement of tax abatement effective March 1, 2013 for the property described as "Lot 1 BW Business Park Major Sub 02.03 New Replat 4013-16-01", This Is a new office building approximating 34,000 sq. ft. and Is located at 7015 Vorden Parkway, South Bend, Indiana 46628, The Common Council had originally adopted and approved tax abatement for this property under Resolution Number 4198 -12 dated August 14, 2012. We received Notice of Assessment (Form 11) dated November 5, 2013 from the St. Joseph County Assessor sometime in mid - November 2013 with a retroactive assessment date of March 1, 2013. While the Form 11 states clearly "The Deadline to file an appeal Is December 20j6, 2013 ", we did not intend to file an appeal because we agreed with the assessment value as stated on the Form 11. We had assumed that we met all filing compliance obligations for tax abatement and did not associate the Form 11 with any new filing requirement. The Tire Rack had timely filed the original Statement of Benefits (see attached) for the project tax abatement and all subsequent annul filings of Form CF -1, Compliance with statement of Benefits (see attached). We received a property tax bill from the St. Joseph County Treasurer in April 2014 for taxes assessed March 1, 2013 and payable by May 12, 2014. We then Inquired why the bill did not reflect the approved abatement. We were Informed that Form 322/RE, Application for Deduction from Assessed Valuation of Structures in Economic Revitalization Areas (ERA), is required to be filed with the County Auditor. Upon reading the Form 322/RE It states, "To obtain this deduction, a Form 322/RE must be filed with the County Auditor before May 30 In the year in which the addition to assessed valuation (or new assessment) is made, or not later than thirty (30) days after the assessment notice is mailed to the property owner If it was mailed after April 10." Since the notice of assessment for March 1" 2013 was sent In November 2013 we could not meet the May 1016 requirement. Since we could not meet the first filing date of May 1016 It then falls to the "thirty (30) days after the assessment notice is mailed" filing date. We failed to meet this filing date because, as stated before, we had assumed that we met all filing compliance obligations and did not associate the Form 11 with any new filing requirement. We have completed the Form 322/RE (attached) and respectfully request the Common Council's support in resolving the timely filing of Form 322/RE with the County Auditor. Respectfully, <L: Joseph T. lams JOSEPH T. IAMB Chief Financial officer Extension 4363 llantsOlrerack.00m