Tax relief may be coming to Miami-Dade commercial property owners

Property appraiser to consider local market conditions, lease agreements, concessions

Pedro Garcia (iStock, IRS)
Pedro Garcia (iStock, IRS)

Tax relief may be coming to commercial and industrial property owners in Miami-Dade County.

Miami-Dade County’s Office of the Property Appraiser announced on Thursday that it will consider landlords’ financial losses when assessing 2021 fair market values.

The office will consider local market conditions, like vacancy and rental rates, as well as individual property conditions such as lease agreements and concessions, according to a press release. The move could help landlords save on property taxes while the country returns to pre-Covid-19 activity.

The office will also consider expenses as of Jan. 1 of the year, unit counts, leasable areas, gross rents and professional estimates of market value from licensed appraisers.

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That’s good news for some of the harder hit properties in the area. Landlords in the Miami-Dade office market, for example, have offered incentives in exchange for keeping rents from dropping as workers go remote.

“The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic in the commercial real estate market have been unprecedented,” Miami-Dade Property Appraiser Pedro Garcia said in a statement. “Many property owners relying on rental income to cover operating expenses are struggling or unable to meet their financial obligations.”

Last year, the owners of Aventura ParkSquare, the SunTrust office building on Brickell and the Delano South Beach filed lawsuits against Garcia, seeking to lower their tax appraisals for the 2019 tax year.

Overall, property tax values across Miami-Dade County rose in 2020 compared to the previous year. The taxable value for Miami-Dade properties totaled $324.36 million, up 5.1 percent from 2019, according to the property appraiser’s office.