It's assessment season again, and
the Examiner reports that, citywide, commercial property assessments are down 10 percent, with residential numbers dropping between three and four percent. So I fired up the database I keep of the numbers for Near Southeast, added the new data as I do each year when the new numbers come out, and came up with a total assessed value for all properties of just under $5.9 billion, which is a 1.8 percent drop from the $6.01 billion tally reported in
March of 2009.
But, wait! As I dug a little further, I found a flaw in my methodology that hadn't quite occurred to me before this year (though it probably hadn't been an issue too often before now): 11 of the big commercial buildings in Near Southeast had apparently appealed their initial 2010 assessments (sent out last year), lowering their tax bills by between 2 percent and 38 percent, from a combined $1.13 billion in the initial assessments to $909.36 million post-appeals. (Ten other buildings are showing no change in those assessments, and one--
909 New Jersey--actually saw an 8 percent bump upwards, which was probably more of a function of the initial estimate being from before the building was completed.)
Taking these changes into account, the total assessments for 2010 for the neighborhood is closer to $5.88 billion, meaning that tally of the 2011 numbers just released of $5.89 billion would actually be a 1.9 percent increase. Except that I imagine that some property owners will be appealing again (since some of the 2011 numbers go right back to the original 2010 numbers that were appealed), and the $5.99 billion number will come down again.
Not all property in the neighborhood took a hit--with the opening of the first portions of
Capitol Quarter, the blocks between Fourth and Fifth Street saw an increased value of $33 million, and the completion of
Velocity raised the assessed value of its block from $99 million to $162 million.
And, since everyone will want to know: the behemoth of the area--
Nationals Park--has an assessment unchanged from last year, at just a hair under $1 billion.
I'll check the numbers again later this year to see how many proposed 2011 assessments get altered.
Here's a quick table of the big properties that saw their 2010 assessments change from the original number released early in 2009:
Property |
Original 2010 |
Revised 2010 |
% Diff. |
Proposed 2011 |
300 M |
$132.26M |
$82.00M |
-38% |
$74.69M |
55 M |
$162.60M |
$110.66M |
-32% |
$110.66M |
80 M |
$124.08M |
$92.75M |
-25% |
$111.27M |
100 M |
$90.98M |
$68.18M |
-25% |
$90.98M |
1201 M (Martime #1) |
$87.97M |
$72.57M |
-18% |
$64.74M |
1100 NJ |
$142.79M |
$121.40M |
-15% |
$139.16M |
100 I |
$85.20M |
$73.00M |
-14% |
$85.20M |
70 I |
$132.28M |
$119.00M |
-10% |
$132.28M |
1000 NJ * |
$84.46M |
$81.06M |
-4% |
$79.75M |
770 M (Blue Castle) |
$23.93M |
$23.17M |
-3% |
$23.93M |
1220 12th (Maritime #2) |
$66.99M |
$65.57M |
-2% |
$47.57M |
909 NJ |
$68.05M |
$73.58M |
8% |
$79.93M |
* This is for the residential portion of Capitol Hill Tower; the 2010 assessments on the Courtyard by Marriott show no change. |