ROCKPORT — In August, the Rockport Planning Board will hear a request from a property owner to change a 116-acre piece of land overlooking Glen Cove from a 45-lot subdivision to a single-home parcel. The move will revert the Brewster Point property back to what it was six years ago, and in doing so, Rockport will take a fiscal sock in the gut.

Those at the Rockport Town Office all agree that it is an unusual, and interesting, request. Not only is the land use taking a U-turn, but this particular subdivision had been promoted as upscale community planning. It was was carefully designed by Boston architects and underwent infrastructure construction (sewer, water and electricity are buried there).

Now, the prospective owners want it to become a single family residence, and that $390,000 or so in property taxes that Rockport was recording for the past several years will dramatically decrease.

On July 20, Rockport Planner and Economic Community Director James Francomano said he had been contacted by a Rockland attorney, who is representing an anonymous purchaser of the Brewster Point parcel, to address converting the property’s classification back to single-home residential.

Brewster Point had been on the market since last spring for $8 million, half of what Leucadia paid for it in 2006. At that point, Leucadia had purchased the property from private owners for $16 million. It followed Leucadia’s entry to the Maine real estate market, a move that began with an Islesboro subdivision, followed by the acquisition of several properties in Rockport Village and then Brewster Point, which is near the Samoset Resort, on Warrenton Street.

In 2007, the Brewster Point subdivision was carefully sculpted from a old family estate, following many hours of discussion between Leucadia Corporation representatives and the Rockport Planning Board.

By 2008, Leucadia's Rockport real estate holdings in Rockport amounted to a total assessed value of approximately $38 million. After much development and renovations to its Rockport real estate, which contributed substantially to the renaissance of Rockport Village, Leucadia began marketing the Brewster Point subdivision. 

Visions for Brewster Point included common gardens, and at one point, even a small store. 

But the recession took a toll on the development, and marketing was put on hold. Last year, Leucadia, itself a holding company with investments in many different industries and real estate, transferred some of its assets to HomeFed Corporation, which, in turn, began divesting Leucadia’s Maine real estate.

Some property was gifted to Maine Media Workshops, while other parcels, including Brewster Point, were put on the market.

What this particular Brewster Point transaction means for Rockport is that the total town valuation come April 2016 will be reduced by approximately $20 million. Currently, Rockport’s total valuation is a little more than $1 billion.

“It is not as much as the value of land is changing, as the land use is changing,” said Rockport Assessor Kerry Leichtman.

Brewster Point includes 45 empty lots, the 1-acre Ram Island bird sanctuary, a pier and a stone jetty along 5,500 feet of shorefront, as well as an older single Dutch Colonial residence that has served as the property's sales office.

Leichtman said the conversion of the 45 lots back to one lot decreases tax revenue, as the assessment on Brewster Point will be reduced from $30 million to somewhere between $7 million and $10 million.

”It will be a major hit,” he said.

This results from how Rockport assesses land. While there are many factors involved in property assessment, the land assessment, in simple terms, goes like this:

For each parcel in town, the first acre is assessed at a base value of $60,100, which is then multiplied by various factors. Factors have to do with attributes and locations of each parcel.

For example, each of the Brewster Point lots begin with a base value of $60,100. Then, the assessor takes that number and multiplies it by 2.4 (that’s the neighborhood factor), which makes the assessment on that first acre $144,240. That number is then multiplied by 4.0, which is the influence factor; i.e., whether it is has good views of the water or mountains.

The sum assessment value of that sample first acre is then $576,960. 

Every additional acre associated with the parcel is assessed at a base value of $5,000, and then proceeds through the same factor calculations.

Multiply that by 45 lots results in a total Brewster Point assessment of $25,963,200. That’s the base lot assessment on the total 45 lots currently comprising Brewster Point. 

The total current valuation of Brewster Point, including additional acreage, plus two buildings, is $30 million. The resulting taxes on that have been $390,000.

When the land acquisition is completed, the formula will change. The first acre of the 116-acre lot will be assessed at $60,100, and then the additional 115 acres will be assessed at $5,000 each, plus all the factoring calculations. The total property assessment will take into account other factors, such as the house and barn, but the land equation will result in the $20 million land assessment reduction.

Still, if the new owner wants to subdivide the land again, he or she could. And, the infrastructure — which Leichtman nows call “functional obsolescence” — will still be there. 

The prospective new owner is not being named, and attorney Stephen Hanscom, of the Rockland-based Crandall, Hanscom and Collins, declined to comment on any plans for the property. 

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