Valuing a Renaissance

The City’s renaissance is changing some once-common assumptions.

A case in point is a decision recently rendered by the State Tax Commission. At stake was the 2003 valuation of a number of City properties owned by a major corporate citizen. We had argued that the properties should be valued for taxing purposes at $47 million. The company, which had not appealed a prior year’s valuation of $32 million, appealed the valuation and a Hearing Officer actually re-valued the properties at $19 million, accepting just about every hackneyed excuse about commercial properties in urban core neighborhoods.

But, several billion dollars worth of new investment downtown, a growing population, and the decisions of dozens of other companies to extend their leases and expand their businesses throughout the City put the lie to the old arguments.

We appealed to the State Tax Commission and have recently learned that the Commission voted to increase the 2003 valuation of the properties from $19 million to $39 million - good news for us and for the programs supported by the taxes paid by the City’s businesses.

An appeal on the Commission’s decision is still possible, but the 2003 valuation is now fixed.