William Lundquist asks a good question when he wonders how the Star Tribune's office buildings can be affected by the rental income method of assessing property when the property doesn't have tenants.
Keep in mind that there are three methods for assessing commercial property, as I posted in November. They are the rental, sales and replacement methods. Keep in mind also that one objective of the assessment system is to keep some proportionality among various properties in the same assessment class. Although the Star Tribune doesn't rent its buildings to tenants, it operates in a larger downtown office market in which vacancies and rents are the major determinants of property values. Therefore, the assessments on newspaper buildings and other owner-occupied properties are influenced by these factors. As for light-rail influencing property assessments, that's well beyond my expertise. Obviously, light-rail service hasn't been enough of a factor in the broader downtown area to offset the drag on property values caused by an excess of vacancies downtown. And since the Star Tribune has had for decades the factor of being situated within blocks of major freeway ramps and right on Portland and Park, it already has substantially more transportation access than properties closer to the downtown core. Steve Brandt Star Tribune REMINDERS: 1. Be civil! Please read the NEW RULES at http://www.e-democracy.org/rules. If you think a member is in violation, contact the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[email protected] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
