Nashville restaurateur Tom Morales says he may be required to close his Lower Broadway business Acme Feed & Seed due to property tax concerns.
In an email to Mayor Freddie O’Connell — which Morales has posted on social media — the Acme owner notes the property taxes for the building in which he operates, with an address of 101 Broadway, have risen from $129,000 to $600,000 annually. Morales has requested a sitdown meeting with the mayor.
Lester Turner and Currey Thornton own the structure (long known as the Acme Farm Supply Building) and lease to Morales, who operates Acme Feed & Seed on a triple-net lease. As such, Morales pays the property's annual property taxes, maintenance and insurance.
Morales says the $600,000 property tax bill he now faces exceeds his rent payment and net profit combined.
“No business plan can account for such a punitive increase,” Morales told the mayor in his email. “We operate in a painstakingly restored historic property that will always be that, a beautiful postcard of what Nashville once was.”
Fox 17 initially reported on the matter, noting that O’Connell said, after request for comment: “It’s not up to me whether [Morales] keeps that business open. The market evolves. New businesses start even as beloved old businesses close.” Outcry from Morales' supporters soon followed on social media.
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“I am writing to request a face-to-face meeting,” the Morales email reads. “I believe an in-person discussion is the most effective way to convey the urgency of the issues facing Nashville’s independent small business community.”
A meeting between Morales and O’Connell seemingly has not been scheduled.
Metro Councilmember Jacob Kupin, in whose District 19 the Broadway building sits, tells Fox 17 he was “appalled” by the mayor’s comment.
To address the concern, local businessman Christian Paro is attempting to create a so-called property tax coalition, to include a minimum of 100 local businesses and in an effort to have Metro reform its property assessment and appeals processes.
"The current assessment process is broken, and if left unchecked, will eventually displace most local, homegrown small businesses in Davidson County — the kinds of businesses that keep our neighborhoods vibrant and interesting," Paro tells Scene sister publication the Nashville Post.
Paro says the coalition — made up of owner/operators, long-term tenants and landlords — is seeking changes in the assessor's office related to the appeals process.
"It shouldn't take over a year for an appeal to be heard," Paro says, noting the coalition wants the mayor's office to appoint an additional board for assessment appeals to expedite the appeals process.
In addition, the coalition is requesting that the assessor's office value commercial properties at Davidson County Board of Equalization hearings using an income approach with "reasonable rental rates and cap rates that reflect what tenants are truly paying and not push cap rates that will force local tenants and businesses out of business."
In his letter to O'Connell, Morales writes that he has spent much of his life "working to preserve the soul of Nashville by promoting its hospitality and creativity."
“As an entrepreneur who started with only an idea, I feel the daily struggle of small business owners who risk everything to provide our city’s unique personality, only to be squeezed out by policies that seem to favor large corporations.”
When reached for comment, a spokesperson for the mayor's office pointed the Post to a statement published Tuesday saying Fox 17 "selectively edited and misrepresented statements made by Mayor O’Connell." The statement includes a transcript and audio recording of O'Connell's conversation with Fox 17, with O'Connell's full response to a question about Morales' property tax payments as follows:
"I think the hard part for all of us in moments like this, I'm happy to invite the assessor up because, you know, this is a combination of how these things work, but we've had the Comptroller review these valuations, and the Comptroller has determined that downtown's valuations are reflecting market value at this point. It's an incredibly valuable piece of property. My understanding is Tom has already entertained some significant offers recognizing that value. So, it's not up to me whether he is going to keep that business open. It's up to him as a property owner to determine how to capture the value that's inherent in the property."
A previous version of this story was first published by our sister publication, the Nashville Post.
