Obviously, the real estate appraisal process is on the forefront of news these days....
We just sold a commercial property that was owned by the estate of my deceased parents. For the estate, we had to have an appraisal done of the building, and would then have to pay appropriate estate taxes to PA and the Feds based on the valuation.
While I understand this aspect, it really bothered me.....the actual property is valued higher if there's a tenant occupying the property, and a bit more if there's a long time left on the lease. In our case, the long term tenant is Verizon, so that's about as good as you can get.
Now, it would seem obvious that the property would be valued more with an actual tenant, but it's the same inanimate property whether it's rented or not. As the owners of the property, we are essentially penalized for working hard and smart to get and retain a blue-chip tenant (or a tenant at all). Certainly, the property is income-producing. But say it was appraised when there was no tenant, and the day after the appraisal, we signed a 20 year lease.
The property tax/property tax millage rate does not change whether or not the property is leased.
Coming back to anthropic's property, the allure is world class fishing, and that comes at a substantial cost. I would absolutely add all of that into the cost basis.
