Eau Claire Board of Review sustains 2025 assessment for Cannery Trail Residences 2

The Eau Claire City Board of Review on an appeal for Cannery Trail Residences 2, LLC (1700 Oxford Avenue) voted to sustain the assessor’s 2025 valuation for the 43-unit affordable housing development.

Property representative Nicole Solheim, who identified herself as representing Senaire Solutions, told the board the development opened in 2023 and includes 43 residential units, with the majority affordable. She presented the property’s audited 2024 income and expense statement and said the owner’s income-based calculation produced a net operating income of about $140,000. "We calculate an NOI or net operating income of about $140,000 and then utilized a 7.5 cap rate to estimate a fair market value of $1,865,587," Solheim said, adding the owner listed a proposed value of $3,000,000 on the objection form because the property is subject to a TIF development agreement.

The city’s assessor told the board the assessor’s office used a different set of adjustments to the owner-provided financials and a lower cap rate, producing an estimated value of $3,571,000 and supporting the current assessed value of $3,492,600. The assessor summarized the office’s view: the income and expense data submitted by the owner "leads us to a value of $3,571,000 which supports the current assessed value." The assessor also noted the assessor’s office based its cap-rate assumptions on market data compiled during the 2021 revaluation and excluded certain expense categories that the office does not allow for assessment income calculations.

Board members and participants debated several technical points: which year’s financials to use (the assessor relied on data collected for the 2023 valuation while the owner submitted the 2024 audit), which expense items belong in an assessment-style income approach (the assessor said taxes, utilities and some insurance items had been treated differently between the parties), and the appropriate cap rate for this class of property (the owner used 7.5%; the assessor said the city typically uses about 6 percent for similar apartment properties). Solheim said the property had experienced vacancy in late 2024 and had five vacant units at the time of testimony; she said affordable units remained in high demand even as new market-rate apartments opened in Eau Claire.

Board members said the case turned largely on the competing income approaches and cap-rate selection. After discussion a board member moved to sustain the assessment; another member seconded the motion and the board took a roll-call vote. The transcript records at least two members — Member Solberg and Member Gilge — voting "aye." The chair declared the assessment sustained.

The board also handled a separate, brief procedural matter: an independently filed appeal for parcel 01-0177X (Academy) was postponed indefinitely after a motion to postpone was made, seconded and approved by roll call.

Why it matters: The board’s decision keeps the assessor’s 2025 assessed value in place for the Cannery Trail Residences 2 parcel, which determines the property’s tax liability for the year and preserves the assessor’s treatment of income, allowable expense items and cap-rate assumptions for this property type. The hearing highlighted common technical disputes in valuation of low-income housing projects, including which year’s operations are most appropriate for assessment and which expenses to include in an assessment-focused income approach.

Looking ahead: The owner may have administrative or statutory avenues to challenge the assessment further where permitted; the board directed that hearing materials and any notices be provided to objectors as required.