Willow/Leonia Associates v. Borough of Leonia

12 N.J. Tax 338
CourtNew Jersey Tax Court
DecidedFebruary 20, 1992
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 12 N.J. Tax 338 (Willow/Leonia Associates v. Borough of Leonia) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New Jersey Tax Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Willow/Leonia Associates v. Borough of Leonia, 12 N.J. Tax 338 (N.J. Super. Ct. 1992).

Opinion

CRABTREE, J.T.C.

This is a local property tax case wherein plaintiff seeks direct review pursuant to N.J.S.A. 54:3-21 of the 1990 assessment on [340]*340its property located at 420 Willow Tree Road, Leonia, New Jersey (Block 21, Lot 20.06). The assessment was:

Land $ 614,300

Improvements 7,065,900

Total $7,680,200

At issue are the true value of the subject property, whether plaintiff is entitled to relief from a discriminatory assessment pursuant to N.J.S.A. 54:51A-6 (chapter 123) and whether certain items located in the building constitute real property pursuant to N.J.S.A. 54:4-1, as amended by A. 1986, c. 117.

The subject property is a two-story masonry and steel building constructed in 1982; it contains 60,000 square feet of floor area (30,000 square feet on each floor) and is sited on 3.512 acres of land.

The first floor, which has no windows, contains a computer room (10,000 square feet), mechanical service areas including electrical room, battery room, generator room, HVAC equipment room (10,000 square feet) and storage areas (10,000 square feet). The computer room has a removable 18" raised floor. The second floor consists of general office space.

The subject is leased in its entirety to Equitable Life Assurance Society (Equitable) pursuant to a ten-year renewable lease executed on December 30, 1983 to commence May 1,1984. The annual rental was $795,000.

The property is one of Equitable’s largest computer record centers where policyholder data is stored. The records are maintained through computers leased to Equitable by IBM, which replaces them from time to time with newer, state-of-the-art models.

The items in dispute in this proceeding consist of batteries, generators, a halón (fire detection and location) system, an uninterruptable power supply (UPS), pumps and chiller for chilled water (to maintain a constant temperature of 52° Fahrenheit for the computers), and interface cables housed beneath the raised floor.

[341]*341All the aforementioned items can be removed without injury to the building or to the items themselves. None of the items is physically attached to the building itself. The two generators, although of great bulk and weight, rest on concrete pedestals and can be taken apart and removed through louvered doors on the first floor.

All the items in dispute are intended exclusively for the support of the computers. The batteries, generators and UPS are all designed to maintain electrical power for the computers in the event of a power failure, which could cause a computer “crash,” i.e., loss of memory and eradication of records stored in the computers. The halón system is a dry-fire protection system; water would damage the computers. The cables and wires beneath the raised floor, along with the chilled water pumps, control the environment which the computers require. None of the items has any functional utility if the computers are removed.

On February 24, 1984, plaintiffs predecessor and Equitable entered into a lease modification agreement whereby plaintiffs predecessor undertook to install the items in dispute for a price (including overhead and profit), subsequently determined, to be paid by Equitable over 114 months commencing November 1, 1984. Provision was made for payment of the unamortized balance in the event of the lease’s early termination.

The cost of the items was called “fixture and construction cost” and Equitable’s reimbursement of the landlord for such cost was called “fixture and construction rent.”

In another lease modification agreement, entered into on January 18, 1985, plaintiff’s predecessor and Equitable agreed that the fixture and construction cost would be $5,088,000 and the fixture and construction rent would be $76,757.56 a month or $921,090.81 annually.

The agreement of February 24, 1984 contained the following provision:

2. All of the alterations, improvements and equipment including the UPS system and generator contemplated to be purchased by Landlord under this [342]*342Agreement, shall be and become the property of the Landlord and shall be considered a part of the building in which the demised premises are located.

Plaintiff purchased the property on January 24, 1985 for $13,917,088. The acquisition was financed with a $10 million wraparound first mortgage, a $2 million second mortgage with First Fidelity Bank and $1.9 million cash. At the time of the sale the Equitable lease and the modification agreements were in place.

The highest and best use of the subject property on the assessing date was its current use as commercial office space combined with light industrial or warehouse use.

Plaintiffs expert initially estimated the subject’s true value to be $3,532,700 on the assessing date. In arriving at this conclusion he employed both the cost and income approaches to value, placing principal reliance upon the latter. He also concluded that the generators, batteries, UPS system and all other machinery and equipment utilized in support of the computers on the premises were personal property and not taxable as part of the real property. He estimated the economic rent for the second floor to be $18 a square foot plus a dollar a square foot for tenant electric. He estimated economic rent for the first floor, where the computers are located and which has no windows, at $14.40 a square foot and the warehouse/storage area at $6 a square foot. He supported his conclusions regarding economic rent with 14 leases of office space for the second floor, two leases of finished basement space for the windowless first floor where the computers are located and three leases of industrial space for the warehouse/storage area.

He posited a 15% vacancy and loss allowance, predicated on survey reports prepared by Black’s Guide, Bender & Company and Coldwell Banker covering office building vacancies in Bergen, Essex, Hudson, Morris and Passaic Counties. All these reports indicated a composite vacancy rate at or around the valuation date of 14.5% for older, existing buildings and 71% on newer office buildings.

[343]*343The expert estimated expenses at $5.08 a square foot exclusive of management and reserves, to which he assigned rates of 5% and 3% of effective gross income, respectively. He based his conclusion on analyses of expenses incurred in the operation of four office buildings in Fort Lee, Teaneck and Wayne during the years 1986 through 1989.

He then capitalized net operating income of $428,516 at 11.88% to arrive at his final value estimate. The capitalization rate was composed of a blended rate of 10.43%, developed under the mortgage-equity technique and an effective tax rate of 1.45%, the result of a sophisticated allocation between space leased on a net basis and space leased on a gross basis, with recognition of the landlord’s obligation for the taxes on vacant space.

Defendant’s expert estimated the true value of the subject property to be $15,700,000 on the valuation date. In arriving at this conclusion he relied upon the income and sales approaches.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
12 N.J. Tax 338, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/willowleonia-associates-v-borough-of-leonia-njtaxct-1992.