Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Property Assessment topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Owner disputes $3.28 million tentative assessment for Erie Boulevard self-storage
Summary
An owner of Access Self Storage at 2321 Erie Boulevard East told the Syracuse Board of Assessment Review the city’s tentative assessed value is higher than market comparables and asked staff to review submitted financials before a final determination.
The owner of the Access Self Storage facility at 2321 Erie Boulevard East challenged a tentative assessed value of $3,277,000 during a hearing before the Syracuse Board of Assessment Review on Friday, Feb. 14.
The city listed a land value of $321,000 and the petitioner provided a claimed market value of $2,101,717, the owner said. The petitioner also provided a separate equatable assessed figure of $1,208,004.87.
Why it matters: Property owners can submit income and expense documentation for income-producing properties so assessors can confirm or revise tentative values before the city issues a final determination in April. A change in assessment can alter future tax bills, though the assessor’s office and Common Council control tax-rate and billing matters.
At the hearing, the facility’s owner — who said he built and has managed the property since about 1988 — described the business’s unit mix and occupancy trends. He told the board the facility has about 552 units across roughly 20 buildings, occupancy that ranges annually “between, say, 85–92% when things are going well,” and periods where competition reduced occupancy to the mid-80s. He also described security features including a fenced gate, cameras and proximity to a nearby police presence.
City staff and board members said they relied on regional sales and reconstructed income-and-expense models for valuation. The assessor’s representative said sales comps are limited in Syracuse and Onondaga County for self-storage and that the office sometimes must draw data from outside the region; they cited a recent smaller Henry Clay sale of about $6 million as one comparable.
Board staff said they were unable to open the petitioner’s emailed financial attachment the night before the hearing but had received hard copies at the session. The assessor’s staff said they would review the petitioner’s financial statements and, if appropriate, make a recommendation to reduce the tentative assessment. The staff said they expected to provide a written recommendation next week and would copy the petitioner and the board.
No formal vote or final decision was taken at the hearing. The city will send a written notice of determination in April, staff said.
Quotes from the hearing: “We’d like to review his particular [financials] and make sure it makes sense,” the assessor’s representative said. The owner described market pressure from recent developers and national operators, saying, “we’ve had periods in Syracuse since the time I’ve owned it where it got kind of overbuilt.”
Next steps: Assessor staff will examine the hard-copy financials supplied by the petitioner, confirm or revise their income-and-expense model, and send a recommendation to the Board of Assessment Review and to the petitioner. If staff and the petitioner agree on a figure, staff said they could stipulate that value for board sign-off; if not, the board will decide at a later meeting.
Context and background: The hearing was part of a citywide review of mini-storage properties that the assessor described as a property class review rather than the full city revaluation (reval) process. Staff said the broader reval remains on a separate timeline and will be revisited when the city-wide project proceeds.
