Times Staff Report

HOBART | Ross Township Assessor Randall Guernsey said Thursday that the township is correcting a "huge undervaluation" of Westfield Southlake Mall, more than doubling the assessed value of the shopping center.

Earlier this year, with the help of Indianapolis-based consulting firm Nexus Group, the township was able to obtain documents from the 2002 sale of the mall to Westfield to determine its value for 2006 as $129.5 million.

The township trended the price back two years to increase the mall's assessed value from $53 million to $117 million. The combined assessed value for 2004 and 2005 will be $234 million, a $128 million increase from the original assessed price.

The increase in assessment will mean additional tax revenues for Ross Township, Guernsey said.

Westfield is appealing its 2006 assessment, but Guernsey said the documentation from the 2002 sale will help the township's case before the Lake County Property Tax Assessment Board of Appeals.

"I feel pretty confident that we should win. That's what Westfield paid for that property, and, if we're market value, we should win it," he said.

Guernsey said it was ironic that the mall was sold the same year that Cole Layer Trumble Co., the Ohio firm that ran Lake County's 2002 property reassessment, valued the property at a much lower $53 million.

Westfield Southlake Mall officials could not be reached for comment.