By Antonio D. French
Filed Monday, February 6 at 7:13 AM
Jake Wagman reported this weekend on the decision by the State Tax Commission to side with Nestle Purina in its case against Tax Assessor Ed Bushmeyer and the City of St. Louis. The decision means that the company will pay taxes on its property valued at $19 million and not the $47 million that the city had assessed.
That opens the door for other St. Louis companies to seek re-evaluations of their property taxes, costing the city and our public schools millions of dollars.
Click here to read the Commission's ruling. Some interesting lines from the document include:
"The single most significant factor impacting value of this office complex is its location just outside the central business district of St. Louis City – which itself is stagnant for office space sales and rentals."
"Office demand peaked toward the end of the 1990’s, dropped near 2000, and has stabilized since then. However, the downtown market’s stabilization has lagged behind other areas in the region. "
"Based upon a survey by the Society of Industrial and Office Realtors (SIOR) the vacancy rate for year-end 2002 for downtown class “A” space was 13.35%. The vacancy rate for class “B” space was 26.47%."
"As of the valuation date, there was a glut of office space, more than 1.2 million square feet, of sublease space available in downtown St. Louis; more than triple the amount of just two years previously. St. Louis is experiencing an increase in vacancy, a decrease in lease rates, and a significant drop in absorption. Lease rates were down 15% on average from 2002. Speculative construction had come to a halt. The majority of the 1.9 million square feet under construction in 2003 was build-to-suit, owner occupied space. Forecasters expect a slow recovery as the glut of sublease space is absorbed with lease rates staying consistent."
1 Comments:
The City should offer to buy the office park for $19 million. It would make a nice municipal complex to consolidate all City offices, including Streets on Hampton, Health on Grand and CDA/PDA/SLDC on Locust.
6:24 AM, February 07, 2006
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