County will refund part of grocery bill

Steve Welker

Nov. 6, 2009 (McClatchy-Tribune Regional News delivered by Newstex) -- MORGANTON -- Burke County's government collects property taxes; it doesn't normally refund them.

Nonetheless, owners of the former Winn-Dixie grocery store on Independence Boulevard soon will be getting a $40,000 check in the mail.

The story told this week at the county commissioners' meeting has an unusual -- even unique -- past history, but it also may foreshadow what happens in 2011 when Burke County's commercial-property owners see results of a countywide revaluation.

A different property revaluation was under way in 2006 when Morganton's once-thriving Winn-Dixie store closed during a corporate Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization. Though vacant, the 52,800-square-foot building went on the 2007 tax rolls with a valuation of nearly $3.7 million.

The property moved into the hands of Wells-Fargo Bank NA. It promptly appealed the valuation. Brazos Tax Group of Fort Worth, Texas, a company that provides property-tax-related services to major corporations, pursued the appeals on Wells Fargo's behalf and currently is listed on tax records as a co-owner of the property.

According to Burke County tax administrator Danny Isenhour, the valuation in 2006 was not unreasonable. Valuation is based on current or recent sales of comparable properties and there were some very high-priced sales at that time, he said. Remember, the U.S. real estate market was booming.

According to Icenhour and county attorney Redmond Dill, the appeal and counter claims between the county government and the building's owners churned through numerous tax hearings, eventually reaching the N.C. Property Tax Commission.

All the while, the owners tried sell the property. One of Brazos Tax Group's clients, real-estate management company ORIX Capital Markets, currently advertises the building and parking lot at a "bargain" price of $1.8 million.

Unfortunately, any potential sale has an unusual complication, according to Dill. That is, other people own the retail buildings (one occupied by Habaneros Restaurant) on either end of the Winn-Dixie building. Similarly, several different owners control the parking lot on the 5-acre site.

Unable to find a buyer, the owners kept dropping the price.

Commissioner Wayne Abele said the county at one time considered the Winn-Dixie building as the site for a health-education center. Even back then, he said, the building probably could have been purchased for $1 million.

Dill said they'd probably take less than a million for it today.

"They might take $750,000," Abele responded.

If so, and if the N.C. Property Tax Commission agreed on that value, the county might be refunding a good deal more than $40,000.

You see, the property owners continued to pay taxes based on the $3.7-million valuation, even though they disagreed with the valuation.

"They were good citizens," Isenhour said admiringly.

For two years the county hoped the bank would agree on a higher valuation, but after the real-estate bubble burst and commercial-property prices collapsed, no one in county government wanted to guess how low the Property Tax Commission might drop the valuation. They decided to negotiate once more.

The two sides settled on a valuation of $1.2 million.

The difference between taxes for three years on a $3.7-million building and on a $1.2-million property are substantial, even at 52 cents per $100. The total, including accrued interest, is $40,089.27.

The county is suffering through an extremely tight budget year and county commissioners were reluctant to pay the money, but agreed Tuesday that it's only fair.

Icenhour stressed that the Winn-Dixie property's situation is unique. Other property owners who think their land may be worth less today than in the 2007 revaluation may be right, but if they didn't appeal then, it's too late now.

Their next opportunity may be after the coming revaluation's numbers come out, sometime late in 2010. The new valuations will go onto the tax rolls on Jan. 1, 2011, and affect taxes paid after July 1 that year.

Icenhour said he expects to see lower valuations based on sales since the real-estate bubble burst. Commercial property in some U.S. markets has plunged to as little as 20 percent of its value two or three years ago.

County Commissioner Gene Huffman also added glumly, "I'm afraid we may see more of these (vacant properties) as others fall by the wayside due to these hard economic times."

Newstex ID: KRTB-0295-39513296