The Bristol City Council may consider even higher taxes on the old Virginia Intermont College property near its downtown.
The council approved permanently increased taxes on the property Tuesday night, needing one more vote at the next council meeting, set for Nov. 24, to cement the change.
Currently, the taxes will be 5% above the typical property tax rate during any given year, which is allowed by Virginia law on blighted areas. Still, a couple council members discussed numbers as high as 10% if the property can legally be deemed derelict.
The former college shut down in 2014 after losing its accreditation and experiencing financial hardships. China-based company U.S. Magis International bought the 37-acre property for $3.3 million two years later as part of a foreclosure auction. At the time, the company had plans to turn it into a business college, but progress stalled around the COVID-19 pandemic.
Less than a mile from the city’s downtown, the property has since fallen into disrepair, with vandalized, crumbling buildings, broken windows and vines swallowing up portions of old structures.
The relationship between the city and Magis grew tense over the years as officials asked the company to secure the buildings and come up with a plan to bring them into compliance with city and state codes.
A major fire in late 2024 burned down four buildings, requiring the city to hire a demolition crew to tear them down.
“It’s a mess,” council member Anthony Farnum said during the Tuesday meeting. “It’s really an eyesore in Bristol. I drive by it every day. I think a lot of people in Bristol drive by it every day, wondering what’s going to happen next.”
A few months before the fire, the city assessor performed an exterior inspection and determined the land met the legal definition of blighted. The council then voted to raise taxes on the property by 5%.
If the council wants to bring that number to 10% above the property tax rate, the city will need to ask the local commissioner of revenue, Cloe Eva Barker, to reassess and see if the property meets the definition of derelict, on top of blighted.
According to Virginia law, a derelict property has been vacant, boarded up and disconnected from utilities for over six months while also being a threat to public health and safety. Properties don’t have to meet that six-month timeline to be categorized as blighted.
The property tax penalties are allowed to spur businesses to clean up properties, and to compensate localities for the higher costs that may be incurred dealing with a public nuisance.
At the end of this fiscal year, which wraps up in June, Magis will owe about $63,500 in property taxes on its blighted tracts, which is about $3,000 more than it normally would owe at a normal rate.
If the city were to designate those properties derelict and establish a rate 10% above the normal one, Magis’ property taxes would be about $66,000 on those particular tracts.
Current city manager Tamyra Spradlin said Bristol would consider raising the rate if the properties are deemed derelict, but she did not say whether she would push for that process before the normal reassessment time in 2028. Last time, the process to name the properties blighted fell during the usual reassessment year in 2024, with new property values going into effect at the beginning of 2025.
Council member Neal Osborne said that as far as he knows, the city has not had contact with Magis since a legal exchange in 2025.
At the time, Eads had successfully lobbied for legislation that allowed localities to obtain and sell blighted or derelict properties that were also delinquent on taxes. Magis had not paid about $605,000 in property taxes at the time.
Eads filed a petition to circuit court to convey the property to the city on July 1, 2025, when the law took effect. But the next day, the company’s local attorney, John Kieffer, paid the entirety of the bill. Eads withdrew his petition.
Kieffer began to act as a spokesperson for Magis as Eads called for the company to comply with code and secure the property. He said in September that Magis was in the process of hiring an architect for the old campus and that the company had contracted with a local security service to patrol the property.
Kieffer did not respond to requests for comment on the progress of the property by phone or by email Thursday.
Based on what Osborne can see, no meaningful improvements have been made to the property, he said by phone. Magis hasn’t kept up with mowing or general maintenance, he said, and the city staff is still interested in pursuing fees and whatever other legal action could apply to compel Magis to do something with the property.
The best case scenario for Bristol would be the company selling it, Osborne said.
“I don’t think there’s any realistic chance of this ever being a business college,” he said. “I’d put my name on it and say that I think that what they need to do is throw in the towel and admit defeat and sell it. That’s what I would tell them to do, if I were their lawyer.”
