The Iowa Supreme Court upheld an initial assessed value of Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co.'s downtown Des Moines offices Friday, saving local governments $1.7 million.

The court's justices voted 6-0 to overturn a decision by the Iowa Court of Appeals, which had ruled that the buildings at 1100 and 1200 Locust Street weren't worth as much as the Polk County Assessors' office believed.

Protesting the county's assessed value of the company's buildings, Nationwide consultants provided a list of properties that buyers had purchased. Nationwide argued that these buildings were similar to the Locust Street offices. The sales prices indicated that Nationwide's offices were not worth as much as the local assessors believed.

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While the appeals court sided with Nationwide in February, the Supreme Court disagreed.

"The (initial) evaluation was not excessive," Justice Matthew McDermott wrote in Friday's order.

The case was a protest of Polk County's assessed value of the buildings in 2017 and 2018, when county employees determined that the two properties were worth a combined $165.6 million. If upheld Friday, the appeals court's ruling would have decreased the assessed value to a combined $114.5 million.

Nationwide already paid taxes those years. If the Supreme Court had agreed with the earlier ruling, local governments would have needed to refund the company about $1.7 million.

Nationwide has also appealed the county's assessments from 2019 and 2021, legal fights that remain pending.

"Nationwide is a good corporate citizen and expects to pay its fair share of property tax," said Joe Case, spokesperson for Nationwide. "Nevertheless, we are disappointed in today’s decision and believe the Board of Review’s valuation of 1100 and 1200 Locust is too high under Iowa law.

"We will review the Court’s ruling and consider its application to the property tax assessments against Nationwide in subsequent years."

One of those two buildings − 1200 Locust St. − will likely fall off the tax rolls soon. The Des Moines City Council voted in September to buy the building and a parking garage from Nationwide for about $40.6 million.

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Who was on the hook for that $1.7 million to Nationwide?

The city of Des Moines receives the bulk − about 67% − of Nationwide's property tax payment, according to the Polk County Treasurer's office. Had the Supreme Court upheld the lower court's decision, the city government would have been on the hook for about a $1.2 million refund.

The amounts other government agencies would have needed to pay back are:

• Des Moines Public Schools: $346,000

• Polk County: $139,000

• Broadlawns Medical Center: $47,000

• Des Moines Regional Transit Authority: $17,000

• Des Moines Area Community College: $13,000

• Polk County Assessor: $4,000

• Polk County Agricultural Extension Council: $700

Tyler Jett covers jobs and the economy for the Des Moines Register. Reach him at tjett@registermedia.com, 515-284-8215, or on Twitter at @LetsJett.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Iowa Supreme Court raises Nationwide's Des Moines property value