GC EQ board lowers Magic Springs’ tax bill

The $7,155,354 valuation the Garland County Equalization Board approved Thursday for Magic Springs Theme & Water Park lowered the property’s 2021 real estate taxes by more than $9,000.

The property will owe $75,131 in real estate taxes, money that will primarily benefit the Cutter Morning Star School District. Twenty percent of a property’s market value is taxed at millage rates the Garland County Quorum Court sets for the various taxing entities in the county. The 2021 tax bills will go out in February, with payment due by the following October.

The property was valued at $8,012,750 prior to Thursday’s adjustment.

“After reviewing the two year Magic Springs financial information with you and our discussion of the impact that COVID has had on the park, I think we have come to a reasonable valuation for year 2021,” Magic Springs’ tax representative said in an email it sent last month to Arkansas CAMA Technology, the appraisal firm the county contracts to determine real estate values for tax purposes.

“Although I had originally requested a lower value for tax year 2021, I am comfortable with the value that you are proposing of $7,155,354,” the email said.

Barbie Weatherford, ACT’s chief commercial appraiser, told the equalization board that Magic Springs had requested a $6.25 million valuation. The $7.16 mil

lion market value the board endorsed Thursday was based on income generated by the property, the cost of the land and construction less depreciation, ACT said.

Weatherford said comparative sales of similar properties were unavailable.

“There have been no theme parks sold in the United States I could locate in this past fiveyear time period,” she told the board.

Magic Springs accounted for $8.36 million of real estate investment trust company EPR Properties’ reported $455 million acquisition of the park and more than a dozen other theme parks in April 2017, according to information presented to the board in the fall of 2017.

The county appraised the property at more than $10 million prior to 2017.