Town Manager Kip Padgett had some happy economic news at the close of last Thursday’s town board work session. Noting that he and the town board had discussed the ratio of commercial property to residential because it was 20 percent commercial to 80 percent residential, Padgett said, “It’s improving. It’s going in the right direction.”
That is because the Wake County Revenue Director determined that apartment complexes which are operated for profit will be classified as commercial, waving his imaginary wand and changing Wake Forest’s commercial/residential ratio to 23/77.
It does not change the amount of property tax the town receives – all property is taxed at the current county rate of $0.6145 per $100 valuation and property inside the Wake Forest town limits are also taxed at $0.52 per $100. Wake Forest sees both rates and the tax bills for both county and town on their annual bills because the town contracts with the county for the property tax billing.
There will be a change next year, 2016, when the eight-year cycle of property revaluation takes place. Expect an increase in property values at the same time most counties and towns and cities will adjust their tax rates.
In this current year, Wake Forest’s tax base, all property, is $4,372,553,277. Yes, that is over four billion. The total commercial tax base is $992,869,068 with apartments making up $135,105,625 of the total. Expect that number to rise in the next two or three years with two large apartment complexes: the Capital Creek Apartments approved in 2012 for 315 units on 22 acres on the south side of Rogers Road, where substantial clearing and grading has been underway for months, and the just-approved Legacy Wake Forest apartment complex of 298 apartments on 26 acres in a triangle bounded by the N.C. 98 Bypass, N.C. 98 business (Durham Road), and Debarmore Street. (Also see the list of the top 10 taxpayers this year at the end of this article.)
The residential component is of course larger, $3,379,684,209, and it includes not just homes but all land plus all registered vehicles ($322,488,878) and personal property ($8,559,735). Again, Wake Forest’s residential base has been growing and will continue to grow with the current subdivisions and those approved and not yet built. Think of Tryon and Holding Village.
The 2015-2016 statistics are totally different from the 2000-2001 numbers, when the total tax base was $787,539,395 and the ratio was 23 percent commercial ($180,732,942) to 77 percent residential ($606,806,453). At that time the town had industries ($15,502,971) – Parker-Hannifin on Wake Union Church Road which made industrial hydraulic parts was downsizing from a high of 650 employees to about 140 but was still operating; Athey Products on South Main Street which had produced hundreds of street sweepers and other large equipment was struggling but still had 130 employees; and Weavexx, which produced fabrics for paper mills, had about 200 workers in a plant on South Main near Capital Boulevard.
Parker-Hannifin closed in 2001, the land was later sold to for development but the approved plan for the Wake Union Place has never been implemented. The current owner, a Florida bank, is waiting for the right economic conditions.
Athey closed in 2000 but has become a success story, transformed into The Factory by Jeff Ammons, and Weavexx has disappeared, with the building razed to make way for a car dealership.
2015 Top Taxpayers
1) Wake Forest Apartments LLC is the owner of the Woodfield Apartments on Ligon Mill Road and Caveness Farms Avenue with an estimated value of $30,297,931 and a tax bill of $157, 549.25.
2) Crossroads Holdings LLC is Crossroads Nissan in Wake Forest on Capital Boulevard with an estimated value of $28,710,113 and a tax bill of $149,292.59.
3) WMCI Raleigh IV LLC based in Virginia is Heritage Village Apartments or ?????? in the corner of Rogers Road and Heritage Lake Road with an estimated value of $22,765,335 and a tax bill of $118,379.74.
4) Caveness Partners LLC or Caveness PTNR LLC out of Florida owns the Caveness Apartments complex on Capital Boulevard with an estimated value of $21,105,703 and a tax bill of $109,749.66.
5) Gateway Forest LLC with a Raleigh address owns Gateway Commons shopping center, which is bounded by Heritage Lake Road, the N.C. 98 Bypass and Jones Dairy Road. The center has an estimated value of $19,939,438 with a tax bill of $103,685.07.
6) Factory LLC was the company owned by Jeff Ammons but has been sold to The MacSydney Company II LLC and Phylesther II LLC out of New York City. The estimated value is $19,677,441 and the tax bill is $102,322.69.
7) Wake EMC is the homegrown cooperative which serves most of the Heritage subdivision with electricity. It also has two buildings in town. The estimated value is $17,677,106 with a tax bill of $91,920.95.
8) Walmart out of Bentonville, Arkansas, has one store in Wake Forest with an estimated value of $17,360,451 and a tax bill of $90,274.35.
9) Lowes Home Center on Galaxy Drive off the N.C. 98 Bypass has an estimated value of $17,309,864 and a tax bill of $90,011.29.
10) MLC Automotive LLC is the Chris Leith car dealerships on South Main and Star Road with an estimated value of $14,936,618 and a tax bill of $77,670.
You can find all these statistics and much more by going to www.wakegov.com, searching for “Revenue/Tax” and looking for statistics.
