HADLEY — An average homeowner will have a higher-than-usual $272 increase in property taxes next year, due in part to the costs for renovating the locker rooms at Hopkins Academy.

The Select Board approved a series of recommendations Wednesday from the Board of Assessors that will maintain a single tax rate for all residential and commercial properties and lead to the average home, assessed at $453,936, having a $5,279 tax bill.

That average tax bill is 5.4%, or $272, higher than this year’s $5,007 tax bill, when the average home was valued at $439,690.

“It’s a higher jump than normal,” said Principal Assessor Daniel Zdonek, explaining that the annual increase in residential tax bills is usually in the $150 to $160 range.

The tax rate is projected to increase to $11.63 per $1,000 valuation, up from this year’s $11.39 per $1,000 tax rate.

Two factors are contributing to the increase, he said.

First is the $1.07 million in borrowing for the school locker rooms, adding about $90 to the average tax bill. The borrowing is being paid back in a way to get the payments off the tax rate before payments begin on a $2 million ladder truck for the Fire Department. Payments related to debt-exclusion projects are up from $860,000 to $1.12 million, Zdonek said.

Second, adding about $19 to the average tax bill, is the loss of the 300 Venture Way property as a taxpaying site. That is because the site was acquired for $7.1 million earlier this year by the Pioneer Valley Chinese Immersion Charter School, a tax-exempt entity, for a second campus.

The average tax bill for commercial properties is up $715, or 7.41%, going to $10,366 from $9,651.

There are positives to the town’s overall revenue picture as well, Zdonek said. For the first time since COVID, commercial tax revenue is growing as a percentage of the classifications, and there was $290,478 in new revenue related to both commercial and residential construction, higher than the $130,000 to $150,000 in most recent years.

Also, Hadley’s tax rate is less than half of the maximum tax rate allowed by the state, which is $25 per $1,000 valuation.

The Select Board’s other votes were for:

■No open space discount, which can be for up to 25%, but no land in Hadley is classified that way. Zdonek said the last land in Hadley that had been classified as open space was under Lake Warner in North Hadley.

■No residential exemption, which can be for up to 35% of a the average assessed value for owner-occupied homes, and would shift the tax burden to higher-end homes. But this is typically used only in resort areas, like Cape Cod and Martha’s Vineyard. Zdonek said.

■No small commercial exemption, which can be up to 10% of the property value, but this can only apply for properties that are under $1 million and with 10 or fewer employees. Zdonek said 75 parcels would qualify, an increasing number that he attributes mostly to a shrinking workforce at some businesses.

Meanwhile, Zdonek was applauded at his final tax classification forum, with his retirement planned for January, after serving in the role in Hadley since July 1990 and bringing to a close a 38-year career as an assessor.

His successor was on hand for the presentation. Cheryl Hollway, an assessor in Holyoke since the summer of 2022, will take over the Hadley position on Jan. 6.

Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.