Daimler Trucks North America LLC v. Multnomah County Assessor

CourtOregon Tax Court
DecidedNovember 10, 2025
DocketTC-MD 230255R
StatusUnpublished

This text of Daimler Trucks North America LLC v. Multnomah County Assessor (Daimler Trucks North America LLC v. Multnomah County Assessor) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Oregon Tax Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Daimler Trucks North America LLC v. Multnomah County Assessor, (Or. Super. Ct. 2025).

Opinion

IN THE OREGON TAX COURT MAGISTRATE DIVISION Property Tax

DAIMLER TRUCKS NORTH AMERICA ) LLC, ) ) Plaintiff, ) TC-MD 230255R / 230259R ) v. ) ) MULTNOMAH COUNTY ASSESSOR, ) ) Defendant. ) DECISION

Plaintiff appealed the Multnomah County Board of Property Tax Appeal orders, mailed

April 12, 2023, for Accounts R540494, R540481, and R672244, for the 2022-23 tax year. A trial

was held on September 24 and 25, 2024, at the Oregon Tax Court. Alex Robinson, an attorney

with CKR Law Group, P.C., appeared on behalf of Plaintiff. Owen Bartels (Bartels), an

appraiser with NW Value Consulting, testified on behalf of Plaintiff. Carlos Rasch, Assistant

County Counsel for Multnomah County, appeared on behalf of Defendant. Mark Pomykacz

(Pomykacz), an appraiser with Federal Appraisal LLC, testified on behalf of Defendant.

Plaintiff’s exhibits PE1 to PE479 (including corrected pages) and Defendant’s exhibits DE1 to

DE222 were received into evidence. Post-trial briefs were received on November 14, 2024.

I. STATEMENT OF FACTS

A. Overview

The subject properties consist of three office buildings commonly referred to as Nova,

TEC, and Corp 9. Located on the south side of Swan Island in Portland, Oregon, the subject

properties are owned and operated as part of Plaintiff’s corporate headquarters campus. They are

situated within the Portland/Vancouver metropolitan statistical area (MSA). (PE10.) Nearly half

of Oregon’s population resides within this MSA. (PE11.)

DECISION TC-MD 230255R & 230259R 1 1. Nova building

The Nova building is a nine-story, owner-occupied, Class A office facility constructed by

Plaintiff in 2016. (DE31-DE33.) The building contains approximately 267,280 square feet and

is located on a 10.38-acre parcel in a predominately industrial area. (Id.; PE5.) A 242,720

square foot, four story, parking garage was constructed with the building and serves all the

subject properties, although additional surface lots exist for the other buildings. (PE5.)

The Nova building includes high-end carpet tile, tiled restrooms, drop-acoustical tile

ceilings with LED lighting, and painted gypsum walls – that Plaintiff characterizes as very good

quality finishes. (PE24). The entrance features a two-story atrium containing a showcase truck,

a small café, meeting rooms and workstations scattered throughout. (PE25-PE27.)

2. TEC building

Plaintiff acquired the TEC building, originally constructed in 1977, and substantially

remodeled it in 2016. (PE141) The building has approximately 215,104 square feet of office

space and on an 11.6 acre parcel. As of the assessment date, the building had some failing

façade, which was noted in Plaintiff’s report as diminishing value. (PE141.)

3. Corp 9 building

The Corp 9 building was originally constructed in 1986 as a research and development

facility. (PE361.) Corp 9 includes approximately 58,938 square feet and is located on a 4.98-

acre parcel. (PE357.) Plaintiff purchased the property in 1999, later expanding and repurposing

it as part of its headquarters campus. (PE357.) As of the assessment date, the building housed

Plaintiff’s daycare operations, a shipping and receiving bay, and open-format office space. (Id.)

Although the northern portion of the building was initially designed as an indoor sport court for

employees, it was ultimately converted to additional office space. (PE 365.)

DECISION TC-MD 230255R & 230259R 2 4. Land valuation and appraisal information

The parties agreed to the land values; therefore, land valuation was excluded from the

appraisal reports. Although located on separate tax lots, all three buildings are physically

contiguous, owned by Plaintiff, and function as an integrated corporate headquarters campus.

While Plaintiff submitted three standalone appraisals for the properties, it acknowledged their

operational integration. Defendant submitted a single appraisal treating the buildings as one

special purpose property.

B. Plaintiff’s Appraisal Methodologies and Conclusions

1. Nova building

Bartels testified that he is a Certified General Appraiser with over 20 years of experience,

prepared appraisal reports for each of the three buildings. (PE3.) For the Nova building, he

developed the cost, sales comparison, and income capitalization approaches. He concluded that

the highest and best use of this building was continued use as a corporate office facility. (PE35-

PE36.) The appraisal did not treat the building as special purpose, despite acknowledging its

integration into the larger campus. (Id.)

Bartels testified that market feedback suggested that the Covid-19 pandemic had a

negative impact on value; however, on cross examination he testified that available sales data did

not confirm this as of the assessment date. (PE13.) He identified the potential buyer pool as

regional and national owner-users.

a. Cost approach - Nova

Plaintiff’s actual construction cost for Nova was approximately $128.9 million. (PE43.)

Adjusted using Federal Reserve Bank economic data, the estimated cost to build as of the

assessment date was $152.8 million. (PE45.) Using the Marshall & Swift valuation data, Bartels

DECISION TC-MD 230255R & 230259R 3 estimated the replacement cost at $116.4 million, deducted $20.6 million for depreciation, added

the assessor’s land value of $10.9 million, and concluded a cost-based value of $99,348,794.1

This approach was given the least weight due to limitations in market-derived depreciation

estimates for such a specialized structure. (PE41-PE48).

The actual cost for the parking garage was $20,642,648, while Marshall & Swift data

estimated the cost at $16,699,136. (PE43, PE46.) Bartels estimated the surface lot cost at $7.50

per square foot and structured parking cost at $69 per square foot. (Id.)

b. Sales comparison approach - Nova

Bartels analyzed ten sales of comparable properties, adjusting for location, age, quality,

and parking. (PE49-PE68) Five of the comparable sales were located in the Seattle MSA, three

in the Portland MSA, and one in Phoenix, Arizona. He acknowledged the differences between

these markets but maintained that the comparables were appropriate, despite adjustments

averaging around 50 percent. Adjusted prices ranged from $89 to $448 per square foot. (PE67.)

Bartels concluded a reconciled value of $85,530,000, or approximately $320 per square foot.

(PE69.)

Of the ten comparable sales, Comparable 5 included a confirmed parking structure; the

nine properties had surface lots or lacked parking data. (PE53–PE62.) The subject property’s

parking garage, at 242,720 square feet, accommodates 1,380 cars and 12 motorcycles—equating

to 6.57 spaces per 1,000 square feet of building area. (PE23, PE29.) Bartels did not assign a

separate value to the parking garage, which had an actual construction cost of $20.6 million.

(PE43.)

1 Bartels conceded on cross-examination that he incorrectly calculated the height of the building, and his numbers should have increased by .5% for every floor above three.

DECISION TC-MD 230255R & 230259R 4 c. Income approach - Nova

Market rent was estimated at $24 per square foot, with a 15 percent vacancy rate and a

6.5 percent capitalization rate. (PE88.) After applying expenses and reserves, the income

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