INDEPENDENCE, Mo. — After more than a decade at the corner of U.S. 40 and Lee's Summit Road, Flowerama announced that it will close.
"The end will be somewhere after Christmas and before New Year's," Mike Sack, who runs the store, said.
Sack said they knew the business couldn't continue after this year's property tax assessment came in the mail. The assessed value almost tripled, a cost the company can't afford as it's already dealing with rising rent.
"Literally, (that) was the final nail for the coffin," Sack said. "The numbers weren’t going to work for us, because we couldn’t pass it on to the consumer in retail pricing to survive."
Sack said no one from the Jackson County Assessor's Office ever came out to do a physical appraisal. He suspects that a $2 million QuikTrip is across the street from Flowerama at the site of the old Stephenson's Apple Farm Restaurant was the nearest comp the county used based on an aerial map.
"This corridor on 40 Highway, as long as we’ve been here, I see most of the same similar properties that are still for sale and have never sold," Sack said. "I think it’s a difficult area to even begin to get a comp on."
The Assessor's Office has said it doesn't have the staff to do in-person inspections, although any increase above 15% requires one. Instead. the county relies heavily on electronically viewing and appraisal of properties.
Data analyst Marlene Jeffers doubts the county has accurate data as a result of that process.
"It's a time-consuming process, but for commercial properties it is absolutely essential (to physically visit the property)," Jeffers said. "You can't trend anything. It's too complex."
The city limit between Kansas City and Independence splits Flowerama almost down the middle. The part of the building on the Kansas City side increased by exactly 15%.
Flowerama's market value on the Independence side went up from $200,056 to $471,400.
Sack doesn't believe someone would buy the building, which he said is just rehabbed concrete, for that much.
But someone may get that chance as Flowerama prepares to vacate the property, saying goodbye to customers and hoping its inventory goes fast.
"It’s not just local florists over time becoming less and less," Sack said. "It’s also the independent jewelers, shoe repair shops, all these personalized businesses that over time will be very few."
Sack said the property owners he's worked with for nearly 20 years filed an appeal with the county, but it was denied.
They are paying the tax bill, which is due by Dec. 31, under protest.
