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One of Hartford’s biggest office landlords has filed suit against the city for allegedly overvaluing its properties.
The Hartford Business Journal reports that Shelburne Global Solutions has filed 14 lawsuits against what it calls “grossly excessive, disproportionate and unlawful” property valuations. The city, the company’s suits claim, is not taking into account the severe softness in the city’s office market.
Shelburne owns numerous Hartford office towers, including the iconic “Stilts Building,” which lender Wells Fargo is seeking to foreclose on after Shelburne stopped making payments on its mortgage earlier this year. Shelburne’s lawyer in the case said declining demand for office space constricted income the tower generates.
The suits come as two major downtown office users, UnitedHealthcare and Prudential Financial, plan to drop 90 percent of their respective, multi-hundred-square-foot leases in a pair of towers.
