Clark County Board upholds assessor valuations in a series of Walgreens property appeals

The Clark County Board of Equalization on Feb. 12 heard a series of appeals from petitioner representatives for multiple former and active Walgreens properties across the county and, after consolidated testimony and rebuttal, sustained the assessor’s 2025 taxable values in the cases presented.

Zachary Whitaker, representing several Walgreens property owners, argued to the board that national store closures, deed restrictions and the limited pool of second-generation users have reduced market demand for standalone drugstore buildings. Whitaker presented fee-simple analyses, Marshall & Swift cost approaches, and an income pro forma for multiple properties. He emphasized a recent January 2025 sale of a former Walgreens for $2.8 million (about $172 per square foot) and argued that fee-simple sales and current lease-up listings supported lower values and higher depreciation than the county applied.

Assessor staff — including Troy Campa, Troy Kemper, Tom Verheyen and Daryl Pawlowski — presented land-sales charts, lease comparables and an income-capitalization analysis. The assessor used a generally conservative rental assumption for the county’s income approach (about $1.50 per square foot in many East-side cases), a cap rate near 6.5% for freestanding retail, and the statutory Marshall & Swift schedule (1.5% depreciation per year) for cost approaches. Assessor witnesses noted some appealed lots had been…