The owner of a food production facility retained Stout to provide valuation and consulting services for property tax appeal purposes. This multi-faceted engagement included real property and personal property analyses, reports, and testimony. Two key issues in dispute were: 1) the value of the real property for tax assessment purposes; and 2) whether the facility’s storage tanks should be considered as part of the real property or as part of the personal property for tax assessment purposes.

Stout leveraged its multi-disciplined valuation team of professionals with wide-ranging and extensive testimony experience to execute the engagement effectively and efficiently. We completed appraisal reviews of the opposing expert’s valuation report of an approximately 190,000-square-foot, cold-storage food processing facility. We also completed review reports of the opposing expert’s personal and real property analyses and report. Our experts also testified on the appraisal review findings.

The trier of fact ruled in favor of the client, heavily utilizing Stout’s reports and testimony in the determination. The court determined that the real property was overassessed and that the storage tanks should be taxed as personal property instead of real property. Both of these determinations were in alignment with our professionals’ conclusions.