Ted, further to this issue of who knew the taxes only exist because of the lease and Seacrets paying the taxes, whatever they might be, prior to my recent post, take a look at the following quotes by some of those directly involved:

Marty Clarke 5/3/2010 to me 
I know you can't stand it, but let's address the facts for a change. The lease relationship Ocean Pines Association, Inc. enjoys with Seacrets is a great deal for the Ocean Pines membership. The only noticeable difference between the existing lease arrangement and no lease agreement is an amount of assessment dollars in the neighborhood of $75,000.00 a year.

Marty was obviously not factual with his $75,000 number. 

JKnepper 5/5/2010
guess I am confused... The lease has an annual price of $40,000 or so, escalating. In addition, OPA will not have to pay the real estate tax on the property... I am not sure exactly what that figure is... but let's say it is $35,000 per year. That makes the annual return to OPA $75,000 ($40,000 plus $35,000). Since this is a five year lease... that aggregates to $375,000 on a property that is worth say, $2,500,000.

Knepper was apparently involved in the lease review, yet his words above clearly indicate he, like Marty, didn't have a clue as to the status of the taxes.

Ted Moroney 5/5/2010
Further, the lease gives Secrets the right to, at their own sole expense, fight on our behalf any assessment value. Given one of the few things everyone seems to agree on is that Moore is a shrewd businessman, he has the right to fight any assessment increase, at no cost to OPA, and save himself some money. If he does it inures to his benefit in tax savings and ours in a lower assessed value.

The last sentence above is telling, telling in the sense it indicates you did not know of the tax status details. How could any lowering of the real estate tax benefit OPA, as you indicate it would, if the tax only exists because of the lease.

Let's face reality -- those reviewing the lease were not aware of the information I reported here with regard to the real estate taxes on both of our Ocean City properties.

In one of your posts you inquired of Rick as to why $40,000 might not be fair market value. I have no idea if it is or not. However, what information is available to indicate it is fair market value, taking into consideration the lessor's required need for parking spaces relative to the number of customers as required by county and/or city rules?

$40,000 amounts to about $110 a day, or as someone else compared, the cost of 2 round of golf. Maybe OPA could make more money by opening a commercial parking lot on the premises.

We also lease Seacrets a portion of the oceanside property. Perhaps my memory is faulty but I think the ocean side may have some sort of residential zoning. If so, how do we lease out parking rights for a commercial business in a residential zone?