CRANBERRY TWP — The Westinghouse campus sold in January for $180 million, real estate tax was paid on just $145.4 million of the transaction.

That $34.6 million gap represents a loss of $173,000 in deed transfer taxes each to the township and Seneca Valley School District.

But the site's former owner says state law mandates that result.

In a March 6 letter to Cranberry Township Manager Jerry Andree and Seneca Valley Superintendent Tracy Vitale, Columbia Property Trust laid out the details of how the $180 million sale was conducted.

Because “membership interests” in a number of holding companies were sold — rather than the property itself — tax was not owed on the $35 million gap between the property value and sale price, said Debbie J. Newmark, Columbia's senior director of corporate compliance and transactions.

This is an excerpt from a larger article that appeared in Tuesday's Butler Eagle. Subscribe online or in print to read the full article.