NORTH ATTLEBORO - A settlement has been reached between the town and Emerald Square mall that puts an end to a years-long fight over the shopping center's requests for tax abatements.

Under the agreement, which was confirmed Friday by Assessor Paul Pinsonnault, the town will reduce its value of the mall and refund to Emerald Square about $1 million in tax money paid by the mall since the 2002 fiscal year, when its first abatement request was filed. The town will also have to pay Emerald Square about $200,000 in interest for the tax overpayments.

"It's a significant amount of money, but it's also quite a bit less than what they were saying they were entitled to," Pinsonnault said.

The mall requested tax abatements every year from the 2002 to 2007 fiscal year and all have been cleared up as a result of the settlement. In addition, as part of the settlement Emerald Square has agreed to a value of approximately $200 million- about $29 million less than the town's prior value - so it will not file an abatement request during this fiscal year.

Simon Property Group, which owns Emerald Square Mall, does not comment on tax related matters. While the refund is a significant amount of money, the town planned ahead by storing money away in its overlay account in case the tax abatement issue were not resolved in the town's favor. As a result, Pinsonnault said there is enough money in the overlay account to refund the mall's tax money and cover the interest as well - meaning there will be no impact on the town budget.

An article will have to be approved at town meeting for the interest payment, however.

The settlement was reached after the Appellate Tax Board made a decision covering four years of tax abatements requested by the mall. Neither the mall nor the town walked away the clear winner in the case as the Appellate Tax Board ordered and assessment that was in the middle of the figured presented by both sides of the case.

After the ruling, the town filed an appeal but also entered into talks with Emerald Square to see if a settlement could be reached.

The dispute involved the valuation of the mall, which was set by assessors at $176 million in 2002 - not including the anchor stores, which are assessed separately.

At the time, the assessment gave Emerald Square a $2 million annual tax bill.

Assessors argued the value was fair and is based on the sale of similar types of property.

Simon argued that the 164-store mall was worth only about $132 million, which would have dropped its tax bill to $1.5 million that year. Simon said mall tenants did not see a 33 percent increase in sales, so a 33 percent increase in valuation was too high.

The disputed values for successive years were different but the arguments were similar.

All told, the mall's abatement requests over the seven years totaled about $2 million.