Ironbound Educational & Cultural Center, Inc. v. City of Newark

8 N.J. Tax 540
CourtNew Jersey Tax Court
DecidedOctober 27, 1986
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 8 N.J. Tax 540 (Ironbound Educational & Cultural Center, Inc. v. City of Newark) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New Jersey Tax Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Ironbound Educational & Cultural Center, Inc. v. City of Newark, 8 N.J. Tax 540 (N.J. Super. Ct. 1986).

Opinion

CRABTREE, J.T.C.

This is a local property tax exemption case wherein plaintiff moves for summary judgment with respect to tax years 1984 and 1985. Plaintiff claims entitlement to exemption pursuant to N.J.S.A. 54:4-3.6 for 1984 and N.J.S.A. 54:4-3.52 for 1985. The court construes defendant’s response to the motion as a cross-motion for summary judgment which, if granted, will result in a dismissal of plaintiff’s complaint.

The undisputed facts are as follows.

Plaintiff, the owner of real property located at 176-184 Edison Place, Newark, New Jersey (Block 183, Lots 5 and 6), is a nonprofit eleemosynary organization which provides social services to residents of the Ironbound section of Newark. Plaintiff conducts its operations from the original church and rectory’ of the Second Dutch Reformed Church, which was erected in 1848. In 1983 renovations of the church building were undertaken and completed in order that an independent, unrelated business known as the International Palace Restaurant and Banquet Hall could lease a portion of the premises from plain[542]*542tiff. The restaurant occupied 35% of the church structure at 184 Edison Place and the annual rental income paid to plaintiff under the lease constituted 8% of plaintiff’s annual revenues. The purpose of the lease was to assist plaintiff in financing a program of ongoing renovation, restoration and capital improvements concerning the subject property. The rental income realized by plaintiff was exclusively devoted to that program. Plaintiff also makes use of the demised portion of the subject property for its directors’ meetings, its annual dinner and for senior citizens and youth functions throughout the year.

The International Palace is a commercial venture providing meals and banquet rooms to the general public for weddings, dances, baptisms and business meetings. It is not a nonprofit, charitable organization.

Defendant revoked plaintiff’s exemption for tax year 1984 and plaintiff appealed to the Essex County Board of Taxation, which sustained defendant’s action. Appeal to this court followed. No complaint was filed with this court with respect to tax year 1985.

Plaintiff’s exemption claim for 1984 is predicated on N.J.S.A. 54:4-3.6, which exempts from property taxation “all buildings actually and exclusively used in the work of associations and corporations organized exclusively for religious or charitable purposes----” Defendant argues that the operation of the restaurant on plaintiff’s premises precludes compliance with the requirement of exclusive use, thus vitiating the exemption claim. Defendant is correct.

It is well settled that qualification for property tax exemption under the quoted portion of N.J.S.A. 54:4-3.6 depends upon exclusive use of the property for charitable or religious purposes. Princeton University Press v. Princeton Boro., 35 N.J. 209, 172 A.2d 420 (1963); Christian Research Institute v. Dover, 5 N.J. Tax 376 (Tax Ct.1983). While plaintiff seems to acknowledge this principle, it argues that the exclusive application of the rental income from the restaurant to plaintiff’s [543]*543exempt purposes preserves the exemption and, in support of its position, cites Overlook Hospital Association v. Summit, 6 N.J. Tax 90 (Tax Ct.1983), aff’d o.b. per curiam 6 N.J. Tax 350 (App.Div.1984) and Boys Club of Clifton, Inc. v. Jefferson Tp., 72 N.J. 389, 371 A.2d 22 (1977). Plaintiff misreads those cases.

In Overlook Hospital, the exempt organization, faced with inadequate parking facilities, constructed a parking garage on its property in close proximity to the main hospital building. The garage was managed by an independent contractor, viz., Summit Parking Corporation, a profit-making commercial enterprise, which was paid a monthly management fee. Profits from the operation of the garage were used for the operation of the hospital. The garage was used by a variety of persons having legitimate connections with the hospital, including employees, visitors, patients, volunteers and radiology students.

While this court concluded that the exclusive utilization of profit from the garage operation and the conduct of the hospital’s functions preserved the exemption, the court also determined that the garage was reasonably necessary to the operation of the hospital. The court also observed that the location of the parking garage made it unlikely that it would compete with garages serving the business district of the City of Summit.

More to the point as far as the instant case is concerned is City of Long Branch v. Monmouth Medical Center, 138 N.J. Super. 524, 351 A.2d 756 (App.Div.1976), aff’d o.b. per curiam 73 N.J. 179, 373 A.2d 651 (1977), a case in which the exempt organization rented portions of two buildings to physicians and a dentist for offices for the conduct of their professional practices. Other parts of the same buildings were used for exempt hospital functions. The court concluded that the buildings in question were not exclusively used for exempt purposes within the purview of N.J.S.A. 54:4-3.6 and denied the exemption with respect to those buildings, saying:

... The evidence demonstrates beyond any question that these buildings were not “actually and exclusively used” for hospital purposes. The Center rented portions of these buildings to physicians and one dentist for offices wherein [544]*544they conducted their private professional practices. The physicians and dentist treated their private patients in these offices and presumably derived pecuniary profit therefrom. The fact that the Center may have rented these offices at a rate less than the prevailing rate for comparable offices in the area and did not operate these buildings at a profit does not change the fundamental commercial nature of the use of these buildings. The utilization of these buildings for the private practice of medicine and dentistry is purely and simply a private profit-making activity and is in direct competition with the privately owned commercial rental buildings and goes far beyond the traditional functions and purposes of a hospital. Moreover, exemption from taxation for these buildings cannot be granted because it may be convenient for the Center to have staff physicians maintain their private offices in close proximity to the hospital, or because these physicians may perform some of their hospital duties in their private offices. Convenience is not the test; the test is reasonable necessity for hospital purposes, and the use of these buildings for private professional offices is not reasonably necessary for the Center’s hospital purposes____ [138 N.J. Super. at 535, 351 A.2d 756]

In the instant case, as in Monmouth Medical Center,

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Related

Jersey Shore Medical Center v. Neptune Township
14 N.J. Tax 49 (New Jersey Tax Court, 1994)
B.P.U.M. Development & Urban Renewal Corp. v. City of Camden
9 N.J. Tax 490 (New Jersey Tax Court, 1988)
IRONBOUND EDUC. & CULT. CTR., INC. v. City of Newark
532 A.2d 258 (New Jersey Superior Court App Division, 1987)

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8 N.J. Tax 540, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ironbound-educational-cultural-center-inc-v-city-of-newark-njtaxct-1986.