In re Appeal of Unifi Mfg. Inc.

857 S.E.2d 749

In the MATTER OF the Appeal of UNIFI MANUFACTURING INC., Appellee.

No. COA20-300

Court of Appeals of North Carolina.

Filed April 20, 2021

J. Clark Fischer, Winston-Salem, , Attorney for Appellant Yadkin County.

Collier R. Marsh, Raleigh, Attorney for the Appellee.

GORE, Judge.

¶ 1 Yadkin County ("the County") appeals from the final Decision of the North Carolina Property Tax Commission ("the Commission") reversing the County's 2017 ad valorem property tax valuation of Unifi Manufacturing, Inc.’s ("taxpayer") textile manufacturing facility.

I. Background

¶ 2 This case arises from the County's 2017 ad valorem tax assessment of the taxpayer's textile manufacturing facility. In disagreement with the County's assessment, taxpayer filed a Notice of Appeal and Application for Hearing with the North Carolina Property Tax Commission. The Commission heard the appeal on its merits at a hearing on 1 October 2019.

¶ 3 The taxpayer's evidence before the Commission included the following. M. Scott Smith, an expert in real property appraisal, testified that he conducted the valuation of the property using three approaches to value (cost, sales comparison, and income) and reconciled all three approaches to arrive at his opinion of value of $16,060,000 (the same value as produced by the sales comparison approach) and that the net value of the property was $14.75 per square foot. Mr. Smith testified that the best use of the property would be continued industrial use and that the property suffered from significant obsolescence, in part because a substantial square footage of the property was a tower (the "F1 tower") custom built to house older technology that is no longer in use.

¶ 4 Douglas M. Faris, an expert in real estate brokerage, testified that in his opinion the subject property would be a challenge to resell because the property would be difficult to adapt to an alternate use; due to factors such as the F1 tower being "useless" in a different manufacturing operation and the property being much larger than most manufacturing operations require. Mr. Faris testified that the layout and other characteristics of the facility made it inappropriate for alternative uses, such as warehouse or office space. In Mr. Faris's opinion a valuation of $14-$15 per square foot would be appropriate.

¶ 5 Sohan Mangaldas, an expert in textile global markets, testified that there has been a decline in U.S. based production of the polyester yarn produced at the facility and that there would be "no demand to purchase" the subject property for the purpose of continuing its current operation.

¶ 6 The County's evidence included testimony from Ronald S. McCarthy, an expert in ad valorem appraisal of industrial property, who conducted the appraisal of taxpayer's property. Mr. McCarthy testified that, in his opinion, the cost approach and the sales comparison approach would be most appropriate for valuation of the subject property. Mr. McCarthy further testified that he only relied on the cost approach; he had not prepared a sales comparison approach or an income approach in developing his appraisal of the subject property. Mr. McCarthy's report listed various features for the property and discussed how each feature contributed to the County's total value of $27,450,241. To support its valuation the County offered five sales as comparable to the subject property; the average sales price for these properties was $31.04 per square foot. Mr. Faris, one of the taxpayer's witnesses, testified that he was personally involved in each sale offered by the County, and that none of the properties was comparable to the subject property.

¶ 7 The Commission found that, of the three valuation approaches recognized in North Carolina, the income approach is the least relevant here because the subject property is not income-producing. Additionally, the Commission concluded the cost approach is more challenging to develop accurately, and thus, should only be used as a test of reasonableness for a value developed by one of the other methods. The Commission found that the sales comparison approach is the most likely to produce a true value for the subject property.

¶ 8 The Commission recognized that a county's ad valorem tax assessment is presumptively correct. However, the Commission found that the taxpayer rebutted the presumption by offering competent, material, and substantial evidence that the County used an illegal appraisal method, and that the County's assessment of the subject property substantially exceeded its true value. Further, the Commission found that the County was not able to demonstrate that its method in appraising the subject property produced true value because it did not sufficiently explain how any of the three approaches to value supported the County's tax value. As a result, the Commission ordered that the 2017 tax value of the subject property be changed to $16,060,000.

II. Discussion

¶ 9 The County challenges the Commission's Final Decision asserting that the Commission failed to properly apply the presumption of correctness and that the whole record does not support the conclusion that the County's assessment of the property was illegal. For the reasons discussed below, we disagree.

A. Standard of Review

¶ 10 On appeal a decision of the Property Tax Commission is reviewed under the "whole record" test. In re McElwee , 304 N.C. 68, 87, 283 S.E.2d 115, 127 (1981). "The Court must decide all relevant questions of law de novo , and review the findings, conclusions and decision to determine if they are affected by error or are unsupported ‘by competent, material and substantial evidence in view of the entire record.’ " In re Appeal of Parsons , 123 N.C. App. 32, 38–39, 472 S.E.2d 182, 187 (1996) (quoting In re Appeal of Perry-Griffin Foundation , 108 N.C. App. 383, 393, 424 S.E.2d 212, 218 (1993) ). "The ‘whole record’ test is not a tool of judicial intrusion; instead, it merely gives a reviewing court the capability to determine whether an administrative decision has a rational basis in the evidence." McElwee at 87, 283 S.E.2d at 127 (quoting In re Rogers , 297 N.C. 48, 253 S.E.2d 912 (1979) ).

B. Presumption of Correctness

¶ 11 "[A]d valorem tax assessments are presumed to be correct." In re AMP, Inc. , 287 N.C. 547, 562, 215 S.E.2d 752, 761 (1975). This presumption is rebuttable. Id. at 563, 215 S.E.2d at 762. To rebut the presumption the taxpayer "must produce ‘competent, material and substantial’ evidence tend[ing] to show that: (1) Either the county tax supervisor used an [a]rbitrary method of valuation; or (2) the county tax supervisor used an [i]llegal method of valuation; AND (3) the assessment [s]ubstantially exceeded the true value in money of the property." Id. (emphasis added) (internal citations omitted).

¶ 12 "A property valuation methodology is arbitrary and illegal if it fails to produce ‘true value’ as defined in N.C. Gen. Stat. § 105-283." In re Matter of Appeal of Harris Teeter, LLC , 271 N.C. App. 589, 845 S.E.2d 131, 139 (2020) (citation omitted).

¶ 13 "Once the taxpayer rebuts the initial presumption, the burden shifts back to the County which must then demonstrate that its methods produce true...