Appeal Of John Wanamaker

• Citation: 360 Pa. 638,63 A.2d 349
• Parties: Appeal of JOHN WANAMAKER, PHILADELPHIA. In re 1301-25 CHESTNUT STREET, NINTH WARD, CITY AND COUNTY OF PHILADELPHIA.
• Decision Date: 03 January 1949
• Court: United States State Supreme Court of Pennsylvania

360 Pa. 638
63 A.2d 349

Appeal of JOHN WANAMAKER, PHILADELPHIA.
In re 1301-25 CHESTNUT STREET, NINTH WARD, CITY AND COUNTY OF PHILADELPHIA.

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.

Jan. 3, 1949.

Appeal No. 173, January term, 1948, from final decree of Court of Common Pleas No. 3, Philadelphia County, December term, 1946, No. 3567; Byron a. Milner, Judge.

Proceeding in the matter of the premises Nos. 1301-25 Chestnut Street, Ninth Ward, City and County of Philadelphia. From a judgment upholding assessment of $19,705,300, John Wanamaker, Philadelphia, appeals.

Judgment affirmed.

Before MAXEY, C. J., and DREW, LINN, STERN, PATTERSON, STEARNE, and JONES, JJ.

Joseph Neff Ewing, Robert W. Sayre, and Saul, Ewing, Remick & Saul, all of Philadelphia, for appellant.

Michael D. Hayes, Asst. City Sol., Frank F. Truscott, City Sol., and Joseph H. Lieberman, Sol. for Board of Revision of Taxes, all of Philadelphia, for appellee.

63 A.2d 350

The opinion of Judge Milner, referred to in the Supreme Court opinion, is as follows:

In this case the Board of Revision of Taxes of the City and County of Philadelphia assessed the premises Nos. 1301-25 Chestnut Street, Ninth Ward, Philadelphia (John Wanamaker, Philadelphia, main department store) for purposes of taxation for the year 1947 at $19,705,300. Believing the assessment to be excessive the owner, John Wanamaker, Philadelphia, took an appeal to this court and Judge Byron A. Milner of this court after a hearing de novo, at which both the appellee and appellant presented their evidence, filed an adjudication in which he found that the actual and market value of said premises for the purpose of taxation for the year 1947 was and is $19,705,300, and dismissed the appeal. The owner then filed 18 exceptions to the adjudication which we are now considering.

The property involved is the main department store of John Wanamaker, Philadelphia, in the heart of the business district of Philadelphia. It occupies an entire block of ground extending from Chestnut Street on the south to Market Street on the north and from 13th Street on the east to Juniper Street on the west. Its length on 13th Street and Juniper Street is 479 feet and its width on Chestnut and Market Streets is 250 feet. The ground has a gross area of 120,271 square feet. The building consists of a twelve story basement and sub-basement department store of fireproof construction, built of reinforced concrete and steel, with granite racing on the exterior walls and brick facing on the interior walls. It is equipped with a complete sprinkler system for protection against fire. It has 30 passenger elevators of which 12 are electrically operated. Others are being remodeled from hydraulic to electric. There are in addition five combination passenger and freight elevators and eight freight elevators. Some of these are also being remodeled from hydraulic to electric. It has two pavement lifts on the Juniper Street side of the building. There are two groups of escalators extending from the basement to the fifth floor. A portion of the building has been air-conditioned. Some of the floors have galleries or mezzanines affording selling space. The net area of the building is 1,880,561 square feet and the cubical content is 33,604,789 cubic feet. The assessor's calculation of 1,787,537 square feet which he used as the net area of the building does not take into consideration 93,024 square feet used for mechanical equipment space in the basement and the portion of the building which extends outward from the curb line under the sidewalks of the various streets upon which the building faces.

The Board of Revision of Taxes assessed the property for taxation purposes for 1947 at $19,705,300. The land was valued at $8,980,041 and the building at $10,725,222, which makes a total of $19,705,263. The round figure of $19,705,300 was adopted as the value for the entire property. (The difference is only $37.)

In arriving at the value of the land the assessor employed a front foot value of $12,500 per front foot on Chestnut Street; $9,500 on Market Street; $4,000 on 13th Street; and $3,000 on Juniper Street. The customary allowances were made for the four corner influences and 5% for plottage (shown in detail on assessor's report, N. T., p. 118 and assessor's testimony N. T., p. 5). In making the assessment he utilized his experience as an assessor, his knowledge of sales and other factors that are usually considered (N. T., pp. 7 and 8). The assessor used a total area of 1,787,537 square feet for the building and applied a value of $6 per square foot, which produced a value of $10,752,222. All of this is in substantial accordance with the usual and customary practice in valuing real estate in the central section of Philadelphia.

The appellee at the hearing offered the testimony of Louis A. Harrison, a real estate

63 A.2d 351

expert, who valued the entire property at $20,000,000 of which sum he allocated $9,100,000 to the land and $10,900,000 to the building. He valued the land at $75 a square foot. For the frontage he applied a value of $13,000 per front foot on Chestnut Street; $4,000 on 13th Street; $3,000 on Juniper Street, and $9,500 on Market Street. He applied allowances for corner...