Commercial property owners looking at their proposed 2020 property tax notice in one hand and their 2020 financials in the other cannot be blamed for grimacing. There may be a major disconnect between what a property tax appraiser thinks a South Florida hotel, office building or retail center is worth and what that asset is producing. It is time for property owners to prepare and quantify the true impact the pandemic has had on their property values.

The property appraisers’ valuations for this year are based on their opinion of value as of January 2020, two months before a pandemic was officially declared. While some taxing districts saw taxable values decrease, the cities of Miami and Miami Beach saw their aggregate taxable valuations increase, with some of the gains attributable to new construction. Miami’s $63 billion estimated taxable value represents a 6.9% increase from 2019. Miami Beach’s projected year-over-year increase in taxable value is 4.1% for an estimated $41.8 billion. Other cities including Coral Gables, Doral, Hialeah, Homestead, Miami Gardens, North Miami and North Miami Beach, among others, had estimated year-over-year percentage gains per the July 1 estimates released by the property appraiser’s office.