EQ board lowers apartment’s property taxes

The Garland County Equalization Board lowered the 2016 tax bill Thursday for a rent-controlled apartment complex on Spring Street on the recommendation of the county’s contract appraisal service.

Arkansas CAMA Technology Inc. recommended lowering the Cascades at Spring Street complex’s $1.8 million market appraisal to a range between $1.7 million and $1.76 million. The equalization board, a five-member panel appointed by the county, its incorporated areas and local school districts to rule on property tax appeals, opted for the low end, approving a revised $1.7 million valuation.

Equalization board rulings can be appealed to the county judge, whose ruling can be appealed to circuit court.

The adjustment will lower the complex’s 2016 property taxes due in October 2017 to $15,538 after the $914 reduction. The calculation allows for the 4.4-mill increase

voters approved Tuesday for the Hot Springs School District. The school district’s 42.1 mills combine with the 1.2 mills the county levies for its general fund, the 1.6 mills levied by the Garland County Library and the 0.8 mills levied by National Park College.

The resulting 45.7 mills are applied to 20 percent of the complex’s market value.

The equalization board considered the 10-percent vacancy rate the 32-unit complex has averaged over the last five years when making its adjustment. The third-party representative advocating on behalf of the Dallas-based concern that owns the complex said 5.12 percent is the average vacancy rate for Hot Springs.

Recent sales of area apartment complexes also informed the board’s valuation, specifically the $3.8 million sale of the 56-unit Chapel Ridge complex in March 2015, the $1.2 million sale of the 24-unit Shelby Kate complex in July 2015 and the $2.3 million sale of the 48-unit Ashley Kate complex in December 2011.

The Cascades at Spring Street was built in 2009 under the Low Income Housing Tax Credit Program. In exchange for tax credits that helped fund the building costs, the owner has to rent a percentage of the units to people who make less than 60 percent of the area mean income established by the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The rent for those units can’t exceed 30 percent of the tenant’s income.

Valero

The board lowered the market appraisal for the Valero gas station at 3371 Highway 7 north from $560,550 to $491,950, reducing its 2016 property taxes to $3,778 after the $527 reduction.

The reduction was based on 30 percent of the building no longer being used. It was the lone adjustment the board approved for Valero Arkansas Retail LLC of San Antonio. It appealed the market appraisals on all eight stations it owns in Garland County.

The board said many of the stations were undervalued relative to the sale price Valero paid in July 2012 and need to be re-evaluated during next year’s countywide mass reappraisal, which will set 2017 property taxes due in 2018.

Valero requested that the 130 Adam Brown Road location’s appraisal be lowered from $684,250 to $314,058. It paid $2.68 million for the 2-acre property.

Cell Tower

The board lowered the appraisal of a cellphone tower between Fox Pass Cutoff and Leisure Terrace from $132,500 to $110,110, lowering its 2016 tax obligation to $845 after the $172 reduction.

The county’s contract appraiser said the previous valuation didn’t account for the new depreciation schedule established by the Arkansas Assessment Coordination Department, the agency that regulates the assessment, collection and equalization of all the state’s property taxes.

The cellphone tower is one of two McMurray, Pa.,-based Pinnacle Towers Acquisition LLC owns in Garland County. It’s other tower is near Pearcy Mountain Trail. Property taxes for 2015 are due Oct. 15.