- 104 - to account for much of the difference between Mansbach's value conclusions and the value conclusions of petitioners' experts. However, one overriding problem we have with all the appraisers' reports is their failure to consider the County of San Mateo's lease of the East retail space, both the ground floor and mezzanine, in their income capitalization analysis. 48(...continued) comparable leases were for office space; none were for retail space. Additionally, comparable lease number 1, the "Jeanne Bishop" and comparable lease number 4, "Intermodel Delivery Service" have no address identified. Mansbach finds the comparable leases indicate a range of $1.00 to $1.30 per square foot per month. Mansbach states that the Second floor office space has "an attractive appearance which retains many of the historic and architectural details of the original structure." In spite of these facts, Mansbach still estimates a market rent at the lower end of the indicated range. For the mezzanines, to reflect their lower ceiling heights and his determination that they must be rented in conjunction with the ground floor retail areas, Mansbach estimates a "storage rent" of $.25 per month. Based on our review of the lease comparables provided by the experts, and in light of the rent provided for in the County of San Mateo lease, we believe that the market rent estimated by Mansbach is too low. Our second problem with Mansbach's estimate is his capitalization rate. Without consideration of the Jacobs lease, Mansbach estimated a 9-percent capitalization rate. The comparables presented by the experts indicate capitalization rates ranging from a low of 6.5 percent to a high of 10.5 percent. Based on the comparables, we find Mansbach's 9-percent capitalization rate too conservative under the circumstances. Still another problem we have with Mansbach's estimate is, when considering the impact of the Jacobs lease under the income capitalization method, Mansbach still utilizes a capitalization rate of 9 percent. We believe this was an error. Although basically related to the rate of interest, the capitalization rate also includes risk and liquidity factors. See Narver v. Commissioner, 75 T.C. 53, 90 n.17 (1980), affd. 670 F.2d 855 (9th Cir. 1982). Because 69 percent of the retail/office component was subject to a long-term lease, albeit below market, the risk of receiving that portion of income is slight. Consequently, we believe the capitalization rate should be reduced to reflect the lower of level risk.Page: Previous 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 Next
Last modified: May 25, 2011