Mastroianni v. Barnett Banks, Inc.

664 So. 2d 284, 1995 WL 678111
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedNovember 16, 1995
Docket94-2518, 94-2520
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 664 So. 2d 284 (Mastroianni v. Barnett Banks, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court of Appeal of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Mastroianni v. Barnett Banks, Inc., 664 So. 2d 284, 1995 WL 678111 (Fla. Ct. App. 1995).

Opinion

664 So.2d 284 (1995)

Ernie MASTROIANNI, Property Appraiser of Duval County, Florida, and Lynwood Roberts, Tax Collector of Duval County, Florida, Appellants,
v.
BARNETT BANKS, INC., Appellee.

Nos. 94-2518, 94-2520.

District Court of Appeal of Florida, First District.

November 16, 1995.
Rehearing Denied December 21, 1995.

*285 John A. DeLaney, General Counsel, and Lee S. Carlin and David K. Ray, Assistant General Counsel, Jacksonville, for Appellants.

Thomas M. Jenks, of Pappas Metcalf & Jenks, Jacksonville, for Appellee.

ZEHMER, Chief Judge.

The Property Appraiser and the Tax Collector of Duval County appeal a final judgment in two consolidated cases involving the property tax assessment of the Barnett Center, a high-rise office building in downtown Jacksonville, for the years 1992 and 1993. We reverse because the trial court improperly substituted its finding of fair market value for that of the property appraiser, where the record shows that the property appraiser, following the law, could conceivably and reasonably have arrived at the challenged appraisal value.

The county property appraiser assessed the Barnett Center at $70,310,800 for 1992 ad valorem tax purposes. The Value Adjustment Board denied the petition challenging the assessment and Barnett Banks, Inc. paid the taxes under protest. Barnett then filed a complaint alleging that the property appraiser had failed to consider each of the factors in section 193.011 and seeking a determination of the just value of the property and an order for refund of the difference in the tax paid and the tax due.

The property was sold by Jax Plaza Associates, Ltd., the developer, to Barnett Banks, Inc. for $58,758,585.94 in December 1992. At the time of the sale, Barnett Banks, Inc. was a 25% limited partner in Jax Plaza Associates, Ltd. and had a lease of 40% of the building space. The lending banks, one of which was Barnett Banks of Jacksonville, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Barnett Banks, Inc., were owed $98,929,730 on the construction loan.

For 1993 ad valorem tax purposes, the property appraiser assessed the property at $65,949,204, but the Value Adjustment Board granted the petition challenging the assessment, lowering it to $60,000,000. The county filed a complaint to reestablish its original 1993 assessment and the two cases were consolidated for bench trial.

At the final hearing, Robert Austin, the commercial appraiser primarily responsible for the 1992 and 1993 assessments, testified that he reached both assessments by using the income appraisal methodology known as direct capitalization, after considering and discarding the cost approach and market approach methodologies. He considered the size of the property in running the cost approach (the gross building area plus the size of the land) and the income approach (the net rental area). He considered the assessed values of similar sized property downtown, but concluded that the most comparable sale was "too inferior to reasonably adjust." He did not consider sales outside of Duval County because he did not feel he knew enough about those markets. He ran the cost approach, using a computerized national valuation system and the assessment of the land, but he testified that he did not rely upon it "because the cost approach is not a good indicator of economic obsolescence." He explained that economic obsolescence was the difference between the values derived from the income approach and from the cost approach, minus the functional and physical obsolescence. He considered the condition of the property, noting that it was the premier office building in Jacksonville, a portion of which was unfinished. The cost of finishing the building was taken into account in both the income and cost approaches. He considered the income and expense analysis supplied by the owner of the property for 1992. He testified that for 1993, the owner had supplied an appraisal by Charles Rogers. He compared the actual expenses of the property to the Institute for Real Estate Management's (IREM) survey on expenses for urban office properties, as well as to the income and expense information on forms returned to the appraiser by local highrise office buildings, and arrived at what he believed to be an accurate estimate of the expenses for the stabilized property. He considered the December 1992 sale of the property, but stated that it would not have had an impact upon his 1992 valuation because he did not consider it to be an "arm's-length transaction," since Barnett Banks, Inc., the *286 grantee of the property, was also involved in the loan participation and the ownership.

For the income valuation, Austin first determined the potential gross income of the property, using the 1992 income and expense analysis from the property owner which showed a $19.50/sq.ft. rental rate. A city-wide survey of rental rates for Class A buildings gave a range of $16-$23.50/sq.ft. and the Barnett Center was advertising a rate of $23.53/sq.ft. at that time. He used a rate of $20/sq.ft. A survey of Class A office buildings in Duval County run by a national real estate consulting firm indicated a vacancy rate of approximately 16% for the downtown area in 1992. For 1992, Mr. Austin assumed a vacancy and collection percentage of 15%, although he was aware that the actual vacancy at the Barnett Center on January 1, 1992, was 38-40%. For 1993, he assumed a vacancy and collection percentage of 20%, although the actual vacancy at the Barnett Center on January 1, 1993, was 30%. In considering the factors for deriving just valuation under section 193.011, he concluded that the property was being put to its highest and best use as an office building. He took into consideration the location of the property, noting that "it doesn't get a whole lot better as far as location goes." He estimated other income attributable to the property and got an effective gross income of $11,696,662. The property owner had reported operating expenses of $3.35/sq.ft. for 1992; he used an expense rate of $4.25/sq.ft., based on the building's age and design and a survey which indicated expenses in the range of $4.06-$6/sq.ft., exclusive of taxes. He arrived at a net operating income of $8,912,717 which he capitalized at an overall rate of .1171, giving him an indicated value of $76,110,386. Subtracting $5,799,565 for the unfinished space, he got an assessed value of $70,310,821. The procedure was basically the same for the 1993 assessment, with the exception of the vacancy rate.

Charles Rogers, the real estate appraiser hired by Barnett Banks, Inc. to render an opinion as to the just value of the property for the two appraisal periods, described the three recognized appraisal methodologies (the cost approach, the market or sales comparison approach, and the income approach) and the process of reconciliation (weighing the three approaches by analyzing the good and bad points of each). He stated that for a building which had never reached stabilized occupancy, the most used income approach in the appraisal industry was the discounted cash flow method. He explained:

... That is to take it from a point at where it is in occupancy and in income level up to a stabilized point that it will reach in the future. To do this, we take in a series of cash flows of all those years and discount all of that back to the present value that it is now worth... .

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Related

Havill v. Lake Port Properties, Inc.
729 So. 2d 467 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 1999)
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