Guests checking into the Gaylord Rockies Resort and Convention Center when it opened in 2018. (RJ Sangosti/The Denver Post)
The Gaylord Rockies Resort, which unsuccessfully fought for three years to shrink a 2019 property tax bill, is now suing Adams County to shrink its 2023 tax bill.
The massive hotel near Denver International Airport, owned by Nashville-based Ryman Hospitality Properties, is the largest taxpayer in Adams County. It is worth $744 million, if you ask the county assessor’s office, or $475 million, if you ask Ryman Hospitality.
“The assessor improperly valued the property and, as such, the (Adams County) Board of Equalization erred in upholding that valuation,” Ryman alleged in a Nov. 30 lawsuit.
The lawsuit must feel like déjà vu to the assessor and lawyers of Adams County, who declined to comment on that lawsuit or discuss the case with BusinessDen.
The Gaylord opened in 2018. For its first property tax year, 2019, the Adams County assessor valued it at $676 million. Ryman appealed that decision to a county board, a state board, the Colorado Court of Appeals and the Colorado Supreme Court. It lost every time.
That last loss was in June. Within a few months, it was again suing over a valuation.
The dispute centers around Adams County’s methodology for calculating a hotel’s value. The county’s approach, known as the “Rushmore” method, is to determine its total value and then subtract management fees, franchise fees, furniture, fixtures and equipment.
Ryman Hospitality prefers an approach that subtracts those same fees and items, as well as all income from the resort’s restaurants, spa and gift shops. That income comes from business activity, not real estate, and should not be included in property value, it said.
But the Colorado Court of Appeals, in its September 2022 ruling in favor of Adams County, upheld the county’s use of the Rushmore approach, writing that “although it has been subject to criticism,” it has also “been widely accepted by courts and assessment jurisdictions.”
“The Rushmore approach is generally consistent with the income approach to real property valuation,” the court concluded, “insofar as it seeks to ascertain the value of realty separate from tangible personal property and intangibles and is not prohibited.”
Ryman Hospitality’s lawyers on the case are Michael Miller, Jacob Hollars and Larry Martinez with Spencer Fane’s office in Denver. They and their client declined to comment.
Guests checking into the Gaylord Rockies Resort and Convention Center when it opened in 2018. (RJ Sangosti/The Denver Post)
The Gaylord Rockies Resort, which unsuccessfully fought for three years to shrink a 2019 property tax bill, is now suing Adams County to shrink its 2023 tax bill.
The massive hotel near Denver International Airport, owned by Nashville-based Ryman Hospitality Properties, is the largest taxpayer in Adams County. It is worth $744 million, if you ask the county assessor’s office, or $475 million, if you ask Ryman Hospitality.
“The assessor improperly valued the property and, as such, the (Adams County) Board of Equalization erred in upholding that valuation,” Ryman alleged in a Nov. 30 lawsuit.
The lawsuit must feel like déjà vu to the assessor and lawyers of Adams County, who declined to comment on that lawsuit or discuss the case with BusinessDen.
The Gaylord opened in 2018. For its first property tax year, 2019, the Adams County assessor valued it at $676 million. Ryman appealed that decision to a county board, a state board, the Colorado Court of Appeals and the Colorado Supreme Court. It lost every time.
That last loss was in June. Within a few months, it was again suing over a valuation.
The dispute centers around Adams County’s methodology for calculating a hotel’s value. The county’s approach, known as the “Rushmore” method, is to determine its total value and then subtract management fees, franchise fees, furniture, fixtures and equipment.
Ryman Hospitality prefers an approach that subtracts those same fees and items, as well as all income from the resort’s restaurants, spa and gift shops. That income comes from business activity, not real estate, and should not be included in property value, it said.
But the Colorado Court of Appeals, in its September 2022 ruling in favor of Adams County, upheld the county’s use of the Rushmore approach, writing that “although it has been subject to criticism,” it has also “been widely accepted by courts and assessment jurisdictions.”
“The Rushmore approach is generally consistent with the income approach to real property valuation,” the court concluded, “insofar as it seeks to ascertain the value of realty separate from tangible personal property and intangibles and is not prohibited.”
Ryman Hospitality’s lawyers on the case are Michael Miller, Jacob Hollars and Larry Martinez with Spencer Fane’s office in Denver. They and their client declined to comment.
