Assessor: New law could cut 60% in assessed value for near-campus, downtown Lafayette apartment owners

Assessor puts out a warning of a $700M hit coming to local tax revenues for schools, cities, more. Plan that ‘averts a catastrophe today’ is set, promising loads of appeals

Tippecanoe County’s assessor made a rare move this week, calling together school superintendents, mayors and other county fiscal leaders to warn them of a potential $700 million drop in assessed property values for the recent rush of high-rises and other large apartment complexes in the community.

A change in state law targeting apartment properties, passed in 2023 and kicking in this year, could take a chunk out of school, city and country revenues by 2025, particularly near Purdue’s campus and in downtown Lafayette, Assessor Eric Grossman told several dozen local officials Wednesday.

“I feel like I’m raising the alarm that I’m going to tank the values,” Grossman said. “I’m probably not the best person to answer what actual taxes repercussions will happen. Just given the magnitude of the assessment decreases and especially on Purdue's campus, I feel like it's bad.”

But the back-of-napkin calculations were being scribbled across the room.

“I’ve done a rough estimate,” Melissa Cronk, chief financial officer for West Lafayette Community School Corp., said. “And it scares me.”

The Hub and Rise are side-by-side high rises that opened along State Street, blocks from Purdue’s campus, in 2019.