Firm wants GM site assessed at $2,000

MASSENA — Motors Liquidation Co. wants the assessment on the former General Motors Powertrain plant lowered from $12 million to $2,000.

Motors Liquidation is the company that took over GM's so-called bad assets when the company was restructured in bankruptcy. The Powertrain plant was included in those assets and isn't owned by the new GM.

Detroit-based Motors Liquidation filed suit against the town Tuesday seeking a reduction from $12,042,000 to $2,000. Also named in the suit are the town's assessor and the Board of Assessment Review.

The maneuver was immediately ridiculed by Town Supervisor Joseph D. Gray.

"If they're for real, send me a letter saying the property is worth $2,000," he said. "And I will go to the Town Board to see if I can secure $2,000 to buy the property, if that's really all it's worth.

The 862,000-square-foot plant sits on 224 acres along the St. Lawrence River, eight miles from the village of Massena. General Motors closed the plant last year, leaving hundreds unemployed.

"There won't be a reduction to $2,000," Town Assessor Michael C. Ward said. "That number has never come up. It's just a number that a lawyer put down."

Mr. Gray agreed.

"If I said I was going to give them $2,000 to buy that plant, they would laugh in my face," he said. "It's hard to take that seriously, and I'm sure the court would have a similar view."

The town taxes on the property using a $12 million assessment with the 2009 tax rate would be $375,021.04, versus a $2,000 assessment generating $62.48 in taxes, Mr. Ward said.

The assessment challenges from 2008 and 2009 remain in litigation. Motors Liquidation wants its assessment lowered on both years from $12 million to $3.75 million.

"We have had several conversations and a meeting with General Motors representatives in the last few months," Mr. Ward said. "We're working to find a resolution."

Motors Liquidation spokesman Steven Blow declined comment Wednesday.

The plant is on the federal Environmental Protection Agency's list of Superfund sites. The old GM had spent millions of dollars over the past two decades removing polychlorinated biphenyls — primarily on site, but also on some land in the St. Regis Mohawk Reservation. That includes the 1990 dredging of a large area of the St. Lawrence River that was contaminated with PCBs.

In May, the Presidential Task Force on the Auto Industry announced the creation of an $826 million Environmental Response Trust to help ensure sufficient funding would be available for cleanup efforts at polluted auto manufacturing sites nationwide.

From the trust, an estimated $150 million was reportedly set aside for cleanup efforts in New York. The Massena property was expected to receive a majority of that funding. EPA and Motors Liquidation officials have said the Massena plant is by far the most severely and extensively polluted site in the liquidation firm's portfolio.

Motors Liquidation also plans to demolish the 862,000-square-foot plant in the coming months, allowing them to better access the contaminated soil underneath the building.

Johnson Newspapers writer Laura Bomyea contributed to this report.