by Laurel | December 5th, 2013
Lyman Mills, 1876
04 December 1927
Price Said to Be $250,000 to $600,000 May Mean Valuation
Reduction on Some Classes of Mill Property
Holyoke, Dec. 3 — The sale of the Lyman Mills at a figure quoted to be from $350,000 to $600,000, marks a crisis in the matter of valuation of property in Holyoke as well as that of some other recent sales. The assessors have taken as a large factor for judging property values the last sale in the immediate neighborhood; and while this is a convenient method of assisting in arriving at a determination, the valuation of a property assessed for over $3,000,000 to $600,000 is likely to tip over the apple cart.
Recent sales as the New England Tire Company building and the Century Machinery Company, while probably not adding any weight to the theory that land values are too high will not be likely to strengthen it. In fact, if the figures given lately on the valuation of Lyman are correct, that of $125,000,000, Holyoke’s valuation of $119,000,000 must be either too high or Lyman’s extremely low.
The sale of the Hadley Thread Mill at a higher figure of course than that paid for the Lyman Mills, if quoted figures are correct, is not as impressive an argument for devaluation as that afforded by the latter. It might so happen that the whole valuation fabric will have to come to be adjusted; this with no reflection on the assessors, but due to the culmination of several sales that indicate that reconsideration of some of the assessed values might well be undertaken.
From The Springfield Republican
