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Consider, in contrast, the reality of the real estate strategically toward growth, investment, and
market: property values change constantly, research.
completely independent of local assessment
cycles, which at most may recur every four years With highly variable local conditions in law,
and often occur at only eight- or ten-year intervals. tax rates, and property value change in direct
Sometimes reassessment is not legally required contrast to slow cycles of reassessment, it is
to occur at all. When reassessment does occur, imperative to at least verify property values are
it is done at large scales by local officials, hardly set at appropriate levels, and to understand the
ensuring a nuanced and balanced assessment process by which their assessment takes place.
of complex commercial properties. The profiles above show that businesses across
industries, with highly variable numbers of
Given this imbalance between actual market locations, can benefit from proactively analyzing
value and intervals between reassessment, it their property tax spends. A few profiles further
is worth taking practical steps to strategically demonstrate some of the key insights we have
dispute assessment levels; at worst, doing so been able to produce in this convoluted but
ensures that a company’s assets are taxed at a rewarding savings area:
reasonable level, especially when the method of
disputing assessments is done by an experienced • A for-profit university system asked us to review
third party that does not charge upfront for its their buildings. With complex structures and
services. Before we discuss keys to successfully an unusual use, we found that their properties
appealing, let’s briefly discuss some case notes were valued at seemingly arbitrary levels. In
from our review experiences. every case, with the submission of carefully
researched reassessment claims, our review
Case Profiles reduced assessments by over fifty percent.
Well-timed and thoroughly researched claims for • A quick-serve restaurant chain hired us to
reassessment can yield substantial savings for review all of their locations beginning in 2016.
businesses at any scale. Consider the following: Despite each of the locations having similar
material characteristics and similar market value,
• A sit-down dining franchise hired us to review reassessment produced savings in a range that
their twenty-five locations across the Southeast. varied by thousands.
Our work produced savings at individual locations
of up to fifty percent, with most in the range of
ten- to twenty-five percent.
• Reviews for two clients in the education and
senior living industries, each with just over ten
locations, yielded savings in the hundreds of
thousands for each.
• A single-location hotel was able to reduce its
annual tax bill by nearly 10%.
Given the infrequency of reassessment,
consider the multi-year impact that a major
annual reduction in costs could have, mobilized
COMMERCIAL PROPERTY TAX REVIEWS | PAGE 4
