Developer appeals Novi tax assessment

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Developer appeals Novi tax assessment

• BY MATT HELMS
• FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER March 13, 2002

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Disagreement

• Novi officials figure the primary building of the
  troubled Main Street Novi project -- with
  restaurants, offices and other shops -- is worth
  about 19 million.
• Jim Chen doesn't think so. The developer is
  asking state tax officials to whack nearly in
  half the value of the 160,000-square-foot
  building and the land it's on.
• City assessor Glenn Lemmon said Tuesday that such
  a protest isn't unusual. He said businesses
  account for roughly 75 percent of the appeals of
  the city's assessments, used to calculate taxes.

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Assessing Property

• Dave Hieber, manager of the Oakland County
  Equalization Division, said he hasn't seen the
  assessment for Main Street, but the amount
  "doesn't seem to be out of the ballpark" for the
  land and a building of its size.
• But he said the appraisal would be difficult
  because it's an unusual property it's not a
  traditional downtown or a typical mall, so it's
  harder to use comparisons to help determine its
  worth.

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Economics

• Value V R/i.
• where i interest rate, R rents.
• Property tax t Value tV.
• where t property tax rate
• V R/i tV.
• V(1t) R/i

Increase in t ? ?