Menards seeks another tax cut in new lawsuits against Eau Claire

Andrew Dowd, The Leader-Telegram, Eau Claire, Wis.
·3 min read

Jul. 2—EAU CLAIRE — Menards filed lawsuits this week demanding a 23% refund on 2020 property taxes for its two Eau Claire home improvement stores, claiming that they were valued too highly by city assessors.

The lawsuits filed Monday in Eau Claire County Court are seeking nearly $95,000 back from the city out of the $410,700 in taxes charged for the stores.

As with other excessive taxation claims filed against Eau Claire in recent years, the city will review the new ones and turn them over to its insurance company, Wisconsin Municipal Mutual Insurance Company, which will assign outside counsel to handle the case, according to deputy city attorney Douglas Hoffer.

Last year the city settled lawsuits Menards had filed over its tax bills for 2017, 2018 and 2019. A settlement approved in February 2020 by the City Council agreed to refund 9.5% of the property taxes Menards paid for the previous three years. That amounted to $136,568 out of $1.44 million in local property taxes the company paid on the stores in 2017 through 2019.

The settlement also resulted in the city lowering the value of the two stores used to determine how much they pay in taxes. The Hastings Way store went from $11.8 million down to $10.6 million. The Clairemont Avenue location fell from $10.9 million down to $9.9 million.

But the latest lawsuit contends the stores are still overvalued, stating the Clairemont Avenue location should be assessed at $7.6 million and the Hastings Way one should be $8.2 million.

Menard Inc. is the plaintiff listed in the newly filed lawsuits for the store at 3210 N. Clairemont Ave. and the lumberyard behind the 3619 S. Hastings Way store.

Local real estate development company Keystone Corp. is the plaintiff in the case for the Menards store at 3619 S. Hastings Way and is the owner listed for the property on city tax records. However, the tax bill for that store is mailed to Menards' accounting office and the home improvement company's address is on the civil complaint for the Hastings Way store case.

They're the latest in a string of lawsuits that Menards and other retailers have filed against the city in recent years.

Early this year the city settled cases involving Sam's Club and two anchor stores at Oakwood Mall.

Sam's Club settled for a 2% refund on 2019 taxes for its Eau Claire store.

Meanwhile the two stores at the mall — the still-vacant Sears and the former Macy's that reopened as a Hobby Lobby — got bigger tax refunds from the city because they experienced periods of vacancy. All told, it amounted to about a 27% refund for the past three years of property taxes on those stores for mall owner Brookfield Property Partners.

Last year there were three excessive taxation lawsuits filed against the city by different retailers. One filed for Oakwood Mall anchor stores is being settled and another for the Scheels sporting goods store is still pending, according to online court records. Skogen's Foodliner, parent company of Festival Foods, sued Eau Claire over taxes on two of its stores, but that case was dismissed in December due to plaintiffs missing a deadline to serve documents to the city.