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Multiple grocery-store appeals remain open as county defers to state commission
Summary
Several grocery properties, including Price Chopper and Hy‑Vee locations, are under appeal to the State Tax Commission for tax years 2023–25; county staff said they will likely maintain no-change locally while awaiting state rulings and noted the sale‑leaseback financing model complicates valuation.
Several grocery-store properties were discussed at the appeals hearing, with the county and appellants signaling that many of these cases are pending at the State Tax Commission and that the local board will likely hold to a no-change position pending state review.
Why it matters: Grocery stores often use financing and sale-leaseback structures that affect how appraisers and tax assessors calculate income and rents; divergent methods can create large valuation gaps and repeated appeals.
At the hearing the representative for a Price Chopper property in Kearney said several grocery-store appeals for 2023 and 2024 are pending before the State Tax Commission and that the local board typically will not overrule differing valuations in advance of state action. The county’s stated position was to recommend no change at the local level and to allow the state process to resolve open cases.
On valuation methodology, one speaker described the rise of sale‑leaseback financing for grocery chains and how those transactions create rental rates tied to store sales and negotiated factors rather than standalone market rents. The speaker said appraisers and investors sometimes back into rents using a percentage of grocery-store sales multiplied by a factor, which can depart from traditional market-rent or income‑approach methods.
Discussion: County staff noted a $4 million valuation gap on one Price Chopper case and said the correct local approach is to defer until the State Tax Commission rules on related 2023–24 appeals. For Hy‑Vee and similar chains the county and appellants disputed how to treat sale‑leaseback rents and whether those are market rents for assessment purposes.
Decision and next steps: For multiple grocery-store appeals the county recommended no change locally and indicated the issues would be decided at the State Tax Commission where appraisals and financing evidence can be fully reviewed. The transcript does not show local board votes on these matters during the hearing.
