Mark J. Witkin

• Successfully negotiated settlement agreements regarding the properties where values were affected by the COVID pandemic, including hotels, skilled nursing facilities and other senior housing in major Massachusetts markets.
• Successfully negotiated a pre-development agreement relating to the taxation of a self-storage facility.
• Successfully litigated to decision at the Massachusetts Appellate Tax Board a two-year assessment reduction of $3.8 million and $2.8 million, respectively, for a Massachusetts healthcare property.
• Successfully negotiated a settlement reducing by over $1 million in each of two years, and an additional reduction in a third year, the personal property tax assessments levied upon personal property used in an assembly and distribution center in western Massachusetts.
• Represented a major national investor in projecting the assessments and real estate taxes to be levied on a major residential complex following its purchase.
• Represented a national public company and a major regional developer in their joint venture of a mixed-use commercial, residential, and senior housing complex in negotiating the venture’s real estate taxes during the construction period.
• Successfully represented a major national hotel chain in the negotiated settlement of real estate taxes assessed upon a portion of a hotel complex consisting of a hotel, underground parking garage, condominiums, and commercial property in a major Massachusetts city.
• Successfully negotiated reductions in the assessments of five individual warehouse and distribution facilities located in five separate Massachusetts municipalities, in which a portion of each property is used as so-called high bay freezer space for the storage and distribution of frozen food products.
• Successfully negotiated a settlement of taxes assessed on an office building, following its purchase and multi-year renovation.
• Successfully negotiated various Payment in Lieu of Taxes Agreement(s) between respective nonprofit entities and the municipalities where these properties were located.
• Successfully negotiated a multi-year reduction in real estate taxes assessed upon an enclosed shopping mall located in a Massachusetts suburb west of Route 495.

• Analogic Corporation v. Board of Assessors of Peabody, 45 Mass. App. Ct. 605 (1998) – Successfully argued in the Massachusetts Appeals Court that the Massachusetts Appellate Tax Board should eliminate in the valuation of hotel real estate all income produced by certain tangible and intangible personal property and all returns on the investment in that personal property.
• First Healthcare Corporation v. Board of Assessors of the Town of Concord, 1984 WL 16069 (Mass.App.Tax.Bd.) – Successfully argued at the Massachusetts Appellate Tax Board that in the valuation of nursing home real estate, it was correct to allow deductions for short-lived building components or personal property items and to allow deductions of a management or operating profit factor.
• Northampton Nursing Home, Inc. v. Board of Assessors of Northampton, 383 Mass. 884, 420 N.E. 2d 914 (1981) – In which the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court upheld the Massachusetts Appellate Tax Board’s establishment of a format for valuing nursing home real estate whereby all income and expenses attributable to the operation of the nursing home business is eliminated in the valuation of nursing home real estate.
• Albiani v. Loudd, 4 Mass. App. Ct. 165 (1976) – Successfully argued in the Massachusetts Appeals Court that an implied contract with the defendant was formed as part of one major transaction, even though the defendant was not a party to the transaction.

Distinctions:

• Peer Review AV® Preeminent™ rated by Martindale-Hubbell, the highest bestowed rating

Admitted:

• Massachusetts

Member:

• American Bar Association
• Massachusetts Bar Association
• Boston Bar Association
• International Lawyers Network

When Mark takes off his lawyer’s hat, he trades it in for a baseball cap. An avid sports fan, he is a former NHL Players Association certified agent and was a long-time member of the pioneering radio sports talk show, “Sports Huddle.” Mark enjoys playing singles tennis, cheering on the players he once represented at NHL games, and watching his grandsons’ little league baseball games when he visits them in California. He is fascinated by the California lifestyle and has made it his mission to become a professional surfer (as soon as he stands 6’3” and has shoulder-length blonde hair). Until then, Mark will continue his unofficial role of clam-chowder-taste-tester throughout New England.