The Union County Board of Equalization and Review voted to maintain the county's 2025 assessment for a Berry Global manufacturing property at the intersection of Stallings Drive and Industrial Drive after reviewing competing appraisals and market comparisons.

Taxpayer representatives argued the 375,000-square-foot, owner-occupied manufacturing facility has functional obsolescence and a higher effective age than the assessor used; county staff said local sales and larger assemblage comparables support the assessor's figure.

Why it matters: Large industrial and manufacturing sites like the Berry Global plant contribute materially to the county tax base. The board's decision preserves the assessor's 2025 valuation and will determine the owner's tax liability unless further appealed.

Andrew Delaney of Ducharme McMillan Associates, representing Berry Global, presented a sales-comparison analysis and concluded an indicated value of about $8.5 million based on comparable owner-user manufacturing sales and an assumed rate of about $22 per square foot. Delaney emphasized the subject's piecemeal additions, varying clear heights and an effective year built around 1986, and argued those factors produce functional obsolescence that the assessor's cost approach does not fully capture.

County appraiser Mr. Hunter told the board the assessor used a weighted effective age based on construction phases (resulting in an effective age near 1992), inspected interior renovations and office updates, and included local and regional comparables that produced higher per-square-foot indications. The county's 2025 assessment presented in the hearing packet was about $12,076,100 (up from roughly $10,826,100 in 2021), an increase the county said reflected market activity and local industrial demand.

Board members questioned both sides about choice of comparables, size adjustments and market-timing adjustments. After discussion the board voted to uphold the county assessment for the Berry Global parcel; the motion carried on a recorded motion and second.

The board's written decision will be mailed under statutory timelines; no immediate change to the assessment was ordered at the meeting.