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Click here to go to the HeraldTribune.com interactive property tax map showing 2006 and 2007 property values and estimated
countywide taxes for most of Sarasota, Manatee and Charlotte counties.
Market blues aside, many find grim news in higher appraisalsSARASOTA COUNTY -- Sarasota Square Mall's property value rose an eye-popping $21 million
and its taxes are up $223,000 compared with last year. The Hyatt Sarasota's are up $222,000. A florist in Palmetto will
pay $2,740 more. A bowling alley in Venice, $1,380.
Across the three-county region of Sarasota, Manatee and Charlotte,
nearly 9,000 owners of commercial real estate received preliminary property tax notices over the past few days showing their
assessed values are going up by an average of 10 percent.
In Sarasota and Charlotte counties, that is enough to
wipe out state-mandated cuts in property tax rates for most of these businesses, and to spell tax increases for many businesses
in Manatee County as well.
With business activity in the doldrums due to the housing slump and widening global
credit crunch, these tax increases come at a particularly bad time.
"I paid $14,600 last year and I'll
pay $16,800 this year," said Philip Lascelle, who owns a 3,539-square-foot medical office building on Tamiami Trail in
Sarasota.
"But my taxes shouldn't have gone up at all. There is empty office space all the way up and
down the Trail. The value of my building is way over what I could rent it for, and I would never be able get anyone to buy
it for what appraisers think it's worth."
Despite such complaints, the higher appraisals are not a surprise.
The commercial real estate market was booming throughout 2006 and property assessments are supposed to be based on values
as of Jan. 1, 2007.
"The market was explosive in 2006," said Stan Rutstein a commercial agent with Remax
in Bradenton. "Business confidence was spectacular. It was next stop the moon. But you can't compare what was going
on then to what is going on now."
And that is the problem.
Sixty-three percent of owners of commercial
properties in Charlotte, Manatee and Sarasota counties are seeing their assessments, and often their taxes, climb, just as
they are feeling most vulnerable.
"Rents are under pressure," Rutstein said. "People are in shock
over the rise in common area maintenance costs and insurance. The business climate is relatively weak. People have lost confidence.
Just look at the stock market."
Statistics compiled by the Herald-Tribune show 88 percent of auto dealerships,
87 percent of nightclubs, 86 percent of restaurants, 77 percent of golf courses, 75 percent of office buildings and 71 percent
of hotels in the three-county area saw increases in their assessments this year.
The county that saw the largest
number of increases was Sarasota, where 4,045 businesses, 89 percent of commercial property, were assessed upward.
In Manatee, 3,426 businesses, 75 percent of commercial property, got the same treatment, while in Charlotte County only
1,526 businesses, 29 percent of commercial property, were assessed higher.
One of the properties hit the hardest
was Westfield Sarasota Square Mall, whose assessed value jumped to $90 million from $69 million. That 30 percent increase
was softened a little by a cut in tax rates by the county and several special tax districts, but the mall's taxes still
jumped 24 percent to $1.14 million.
At the same time, three of Benderson Development's commercial properties
-- including the Bank of America building in downtown Sarasota -- got hit with a rise in assessed values from $25.9 million
to $39.6 million.
The Hyatt's assessment leapt to $41 million, a $14.5 million increase. And the hotel's
taxes are sure to go up next year because it was sold for $65 million in May.
These increases make sense, commercial
real estate agents say, because companies like Westfield Corp. and Benderson purchased properties for more than they had been
previously assessed for, and then invested millions to enlarge and modernize their properties.
The problem comes
when property owners pass the costs on to the mom-and-pop businesses that rent from them, and those businesses cannot pass
on the increased costs to their customers so they have to close.
The area may be getting pretty close to that point,
said Carl Wise, the owner of Preferred Commercial in Sarasota.
"There are three things that impact owners
of commercial property," Wise said. "Condo fees are going up because everyone has had fuel charges. The cost of
insurance is blatantly increasing. And now, taxes are up.
"As costs get passed through it becomes a gag fest,"
Wise said. "Tenants say they can't pay that much."
The message being sent to businesses is all wrong,
said Sarasota County Commissioner Paul Mercier, who is on the county's Value Adjustment Board, where he will likely hear
a heavy volume of complaints from companies.
For instance, the Hyatt is getting hit with a pair of tax increases
at a time when its new owners are renovating the hotel. Besides the property tax increase, the county has increased the bed
tax on lodgings to pay for a new baseball stadium and to beef up tourism advertising.
"So the Hyatt improves
their occupancy, they pay a higher bed tax and they pay higher property taxes. It's crazy," Mercier said.
Business owners do have an out. They can appeal their assessments in hopes of lowering their taxes.
Lascelle,
who owns the medical office building near Sarasota Memorial Hospital, said he was one of the first to file a petition this
week. "I have an attorney," he said, "and I am going to take it as far as I can go."
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