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Mark J. Witkin

Practice Focus and Experience

Mark Witkin practices in the Real Estate area, focusing on matters relating to real and personal property taxation. Mark advises public, private and nonprofit companies, investors, and individuals on a wide range of municipal taxation issues, including property valuation, nonprofit and tax exemption statutes, compliance with formal requests for business information, and document disclosure. He has extensive experience negotiating property assessments with municipal assessing authorities and valuation companies, real estate development municipal tax incentives, and payments in lieu of taxes for nonprofit, tax-exempt entities.

Mark litigates tax assessment appeals before the Massachusetts Appellate Tax Board and has participated in cases that have established precedent in the laws relating to real property taxation, including special use properties such as nursing homes and hotels.

Prior to joining Davis Malm, Mark was a founding partner of Bloom & Witkin.

Representative Matters

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 company in negotiating a reduction of real estate taxes over a multi-year period for a hotel property located in a major Massachusetts city.
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 litigated to decision at the Massachusetts Appellate Tax Board the reduction in taxes assessed upon an office building, following its purchase.
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 for a public manufacturing company real estate tax exemptions for two properties in suburbs west of Boston.
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.
Successfully negotiated the reduction of real estate taxes assessed upon properties used as restaurants, owned and/or operated by a public company or its respective franchisees, located in various Massachusetts municipalities.

Representative Reported Cases

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.

Professional

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.