It took nearly 3 years, but The Penn Theatre in downtown Plymouth has prevailed in a long battle for a property tax exemption.
The financial burden of the tax could have become a factor in sustaining operations at the theater, according to Friends of the Penn Executive Director Ellen Elliott who spoke to an assembled crowd of concerned citizens during an informational meeting in August of 2023.
Friends of the Penn used private donations to save the theater from demolition and returned it to operation in 2006. The non-profit group took full ownership of the theater in December of 2021 after leasing the building for many years, paying about $25,000 annually in property taxes. With full ownership of the theatre by a non-profit, the theater should have been granted a property tax exemption, Elliott said. She said 16 other non-profit theatres in the state currently enjoy the property tax exemption.
The city of Plymouth denied the exemption, claiming the theater had not met the qualifications required of a non-profit group for tax-exempt status. Subsequently, Friends of the Penn appealed the decision to the Michigan Tax Tribunal prompting months of hearings and deliberation. The tax tribunal judge ruled last week that the Friends of the Penn does, in fact, qualify as a charitable institution and that the Penn qualifies as a non-profit theater.
Friends of the Penn purchased the building in 2021 for $1.2 million and put another million dollars into the renovations, according to Elliott.
Penn Theatre is open Thursday-Sunday. For showtimes, visit Penn Theatre’s website.
