Panthers get big break again on stadium value. County cuts assessment by $257 million

A Mecklenburg County board voted Friday to slash the Bank of America Stadium’s assessed value by more than half, dropping it from $472 million to $215 million.

It’s the second big break Panthers owner David Tepper has received on the stadium in the past few months. Between the two changes, the team is now set to save $3.55 million on its tax bill, under 2019 tax rates.

Mecklenburg County assessor Ken Joyner said this cut is likely the largest dollar amount reduction during appeals in Mecklenburg County’s latest revaluation.

The Board of Equalization and Review met Friday to hear the team’s case for a further reduction in the assessed value of the stadium, which it then granted. The assessment is used to determine property tax bills.

The Panthers tax bill will now come to $2.15 million, under 2019 tax rates. Under the original valuation of $572 million, the team would have paid $5.7 million.

Will they appeal again?

The Panthers appealed for a lower evaluation in part due to the building’s age, Panthers Chief Operating Officer Mark Hart said.

“We have a 25-year-old building,” Hart said. “It’s one of the oldest buildings in the NFL.”

The Panthers could appeal the lower appraisal to the state Property Tax Commission. Hart said the Panthers would take time to study the valuation.

”We’ve made progress today,” Hart said. “We just want the opportunity like other homeowners and taxpayers in the county to have a fair hearing, a fair assessment. I think we got that today, but there’s a little bit more work to do.”

Surging value

The value of the Panthers stadium surged by 324%, from just under $135 million to $572 million, according to Mecklenburg County’s property revaluation last year.

But the team insisted the stadium was worth less than it was at the time of the last assessment in 2011.

Last February in a letter to the county, the Panthers argued it should be worth $87 million and said they base that estimate on the “recent purchase.” Tepper, a billionaire hedge fund manager, bought the Panthers in 2018 for an NFL record of $2.275 billion.

In September, the county lowered the value of the stadium and related property the team owns to $472 million. That came about through an informal review where the Tax Assessor’s Office considers appeals on a case-by-case basis. That would have put the tax bill at $4.7 million.

The team’s tax bill was $1.8 million in 2018, county records show.

This story was originally published January 31, 2020 at 3:00 PM.