CITY VALUATIONS

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 278, 18 August 1921, Page 9

CITY VALUATIONS

HEARING OF OBJECTIONS SOME REDUCTIONS GRANTED Tho Assessment Court continued its sittings yesterday and heard a number of objections, in support of which Mr. G. G. Watson appeared. The Court consists of the president (Mr. V. G. Day, 8.M.), the Government assessor (Mr. Ewen Campbell), and the City Council assessor (Mr. T. B. Dwan). Mr. F. E. Ward yesterday appeared as counsel for the Valuation Department, and Mr. J. O’Shea as counsel for the City Corporation.

Objection was made to the valuation of Brandon Street Chambers. The capital value had been fixed at -£21,51.0 (unimproved .£9OlO and improved £12,500). Mr. Watson eaid that the Valuer-Gen-eral had offered a reduction of £lOOO in tho unimproved value. The objectors, however, considered that they were entitled to a further reduction. The Court had fixed the value of the D.I.C. frontage in Brandon Street at .£lBO per foot. Brandon Street Chambers were on the “wrong” side of tho street, and were further away from Lambton Quay than the D.I.C. The Court reduced the unimproved value from £9OlO to £7BBO.

The valuation of Irvine and Stevenson’s premises in Brandon Street was objected to. The section measured GO feet by 85 foot. It had been valued as follows—Unimproved £lO,BOO, improved £7500.

Mr. Watson submitted that tho premises should be valued lower on account of their distance from the retail area, i The Court reduced the unimproved value by £5 per foot, making it £10,500. An Old Building.

"In this case the valuation of both land and buildings is objected to,” said Mr. Watson when the case of J. B. M'Ewan and Co., Ltd., Featherston Street, was called. "The valuation of tho 'building is a glaring anomaly. It has been increased from £1250 in 1914 to £3OOO this year. The building is a wooden one, constructed 43 years ago. A 0 the end of the present lease it will have to bo pulled down. It is collapsing inwards. Anyone standing in the middle of the street can see the collapse; yet the valuation has been increased 250 per cent. ” In regard to tho valuation of the land at £l7O per foot, Mr. Watson invited comparisons with factual sales made in the neighbourhood. The unimproved value was sustained, but the value of improvements was reduced by £l5OO.

The Wellesley Club Trustees objected to tho valuation of lots 159 and 160. at the corner of Waring Taylor and Featherston Streets. The land was valued at £13,670 and the improvements at £7500. Mr. Watson said that tho valuation of tho land worked out at an average of £157 per foot, A. Gellatly, called by Mr. Watson, said that he valued' the corner section at £l4O per foot of frontage, and the inside section at £l2O. On the square foot basis the Government valuation of the Wellesley property was £2 6s. The valuation of the whole of the Dominion Farmers’ site was £lO,OOO, which worked out at £1 Gs. per square foot. Gerald Fitzgerald valued both sections together (87 feet) at £l3O per foot. C. J. S. Harcourt also gave an average value of £l3O per foot. The valuation, however, was sustained. In the case of Buddle and Anderson’s premises in Johnston Street, the. capital value had been fixed at £B5OO and tho value of tho land at £5250, or £l5O per foot.

Mr. Watson submitted, that ths value should be £l3O per foot in view of ths fact that vacant leasehold sections opposite, belonging to the City Corporation, had for a long time not been taken at £l3O per foot. The valuation was sustained. Tho President of the Court observed that it was perfectly consistent with the valuation of Brandon Street at £lBO and Panama Street at £2OO.

J. B. Harcourt and Co., Lambton Quay and Panama Street, objected to the valuation of Lot 6-la as follows: —Capital value, £21,125; unimproved, £13,00(1; improved, £8125. The valuation of the land worked out .£3OO per foot, whicli was considered by the objectors to be too high. The unimproved value was reduced to £12,500. Grey Street and Jervois Quay. Huddart, Parker, and Co., Ltd., objected, to the valuation of three sections, two alt the corner of Grey Street and Jorvois Quay and one in Jervois Quay. Tiio valuations were as follow:—Birst section (33ft. by 80ft.)—unimproved, £8250; improved, £2500. Second section (33ft. by 80ft.) —unimproved, .£9075; improved, <£3500. Third section (10ft. by 66ft.)—unimproved, -CGOOO; improved, .£2500. Air. Watson stated that the Govorupient had put on the corner section a value of £375 per foot. He invited the Court to compare this with the Government valuation of £250 per foot placed on the retail site of the D.I.C. section at the corner of Panama Street and Lambton Quay, or with the valuation of £275 per foot placed upon the New Zealand Insurance site, which Mr. O’Shea (city solicitor) had described as one of the best in the city. In view of the fact that the Huddart-Parker sections were on a back street —a warehouse end factory street —and were in no sense retail or office sites, counsel submitted that the valuations were unreasonably high. The Government valuation of the inside corner section was £250 per foot, and that of the Jervois Quay section £l5O per foot. Counsel submitted that in tho first case the valuation should be from £2OO to £230; in tho second, £200; on the third, from £llO to £l2O. Gerald Fitzgerald considered that there had not been much improvement in Jervois Quay, which was fated to remain a. one-sided street. He gave evidence in support of Mr. Watson’s contentions. After hearing further evidence, the Court reduced the value of the corner section by £lO per foot, and the value of the inside section by £5 per foot, lhe third valuation the Court sustained. Objection was made by Sargood, bon, and Ewen to tho valuation of two sections in Hunter Street, and one in Jervois Quay. The Jervois Quay valuation wiS sustained. In one of the Hunter Street cases the unimproved value was educed from £11,700 to £9,570, and in tho other it was reduced from £4060 to case of Hutcheson, Wilson and Co Ltd., Jervois Quay and Cuba Street Xner, a reduction in value of one section from and in the unimproved value of another from £70.50 to £6BOO was .granted. The Court will sit again at 10.30 a.m. to-day. .

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