Facts: Opportunity Landscaping Inc. (Opportunity) appreciated your assistance in preparing their 2018 Federal income tax return. As a result, they have come to you for advice on acquiring new facilities for their manufacturing operations. They plan to take access to their new facilities on January 2, 2020.

The corporation has the opportunity to purchase an appropriate facility in suburban Chicago for $90,000,000 ($87,000,000 for the factory building; $3,000,000 for the land). If they purchase the facility, they would finance the acquisition via a 15-year mortgage at 3.5% interest with a $18,000,000 down payment (due at closing on January 2, 2020). The mortgage would be payable annually in arrears (i.e., the first mortgage payment would be due January 2, 2021). Real property taxes on the facility in 2020 would be $1,000,000 (the property taxes are also due annually in arrears with 2020 taxes due on January 2, 2021). Further, Opportunity estimates that property taxes will increase annually at a rate of 3% in years subsequent to 2020.

As an alternative, a local real estate investor has offered to purchase the facility and lease it to the corporation. The investor would require Opportunity to sign a 7-year non-cancelable lease. The first lease payment of $3,700,000 would be due on January 2, 2020. Lease payments will increase by 4% each year during the term of the lease with the final lease payment due on January 2, 2026. In addition, the lease would require a refundable deposit of $1,850,000 (payment due on January 2, 2020) against significant damages to the facility; this deposit will be refunded to the corporation on January 2, 2027 (when the occupancy ends and assuming that there are no significant damages).

Opportunity must decide whether to lease or buy the facility. In order to make a proper decision, the corporation will assume that it could sell the facility (building and land) on January 2, 2027 for $100,000,000. Under this scenario, they would make their final mortgage and property tax payments on January 2, 2027 and then sell the facility.

Opportunitys Federal corporate tax rate is 21% and it uses a 7% discount rate to compute the present value of its future cash flows. For purposes of this analysis, assume that all cash flows occur at the beginning of the respective year.

1. The local real estate investor has provided an option for Opportunity to consider. Under this option, a payment of $12,000,000 is due on January 2, 2020. If this payment is made, no deposit is required and the payment is deemed to cover the first three years of the lease. On January 2, 2023, lease payments resume with a $4,000,000 lease payment due (and a 4% increase in the lease payment each year for the remainder of the lease term). Is this an alternative that Opportunity should consider?