Overview
- The Hennepin County Assessor approved Best Buy’s appeal to lower the Penn Avenue campus assessment from roughly $63 million for 2026 to about $32 million for taxes payable in 2027.
- City officials say the change will shrink Richfield’s commercial tax base by about 5 percent and preliminarily estimate the hit could cost the city roughly $600,000, which would be about 1 percent of city tax revenue next year.
- Best Buy remains the property owner and has not announced any plans to relocate, and the company pursued the same appeal process available to other property owners.
- The reduction follows multi‑year weakness in office and commercial markets, with Hennepin County reporting a 1.8 percent drop in commercial and office values in its 2026 assessment report.
- Richfield must set a preliminary levy in September and a final levy in December, so city leaders warn other property classes could pick up a larger share of taxes and say they will factor the new valuation into budget choices.