The Metro Council on Wednesday will review and hear complaints from three East Baton Rouge Parish commercial property owners regarding their newly reassessed property values.
So far, the council has received three complaints involving four properties: 1) the Holiday Inn and Crowne Plaza on Constitution Avenue, 2) SFC Burbank Apartments, which manages The Lark Baton Rouge on Burbank Drive, and 3) the Peaks of Baton Rouge Senior Apartments on North Bon Marche Drive.
While the council may decide to either increase or decrease the property tax assessment, Metro Council Administrator Ashley Beck says they generally uphold the assessor’s valuation, since the appeal can be brought to the tax commission.
“The Metro Council tends to think the tax commission is in a better position to evaluate whether the assessor’s valuation is fair and valid,” Beck says.
The commercial property owners have filed the following requests:
• The Holiday Inn wants to bring down its reassessment, from $9.9 million to $3.6 million.
• The Crowne Plaza wants its assessment decreased from $8.6 million to $7 million.
• SFC Burbank Apartments wants its assessed property improvements dropped from $51.2 million to $30 million, which would bring its overall assessment down from over $52 million to $32 million.
• The Peaks of Baton Rouge Senior Apartments wants its assessed improvements dropped from $3.6 million to $2.1 million, bringing the total valuation down from $3.9 million to $2.4 million.
Generally, assessments went up, though homeowners likely saw larger hikes than did most commercial property owners.
The assessor’s office factored COVID-19 economic conditions into its commercial assessments for 2020, while residential assessments were determined before the pandemic using 2019 average sale prices. EBR Parish Tax Assessor Brian Wilson has told Daily Report he’d be open to decreasing the assessments of commercial property owners who have been hit hard by the economic downturn.
The council’s determination is considered final unless it’s appealed to the tax commission.
