Fulton County commercial property owners should brace for sticker shock today.

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AJC (ENLARGE)

Some commercial properties in Fulton get a three-digit increase in revaluation

Interactive Map: Nine properties, what they're worth Fulton Board of Tax Assessors Recent headlines: [an error occurred while processing this directive]    • Atlanta and Fulton County news

The county will mail nearly 20,000 revaluation notices to owners of office space, apartment complexes, industrial sites, retail shopping centers, restaurants and other commercial ventures.

The median increase is projected at 44 percent. That means roughly 10,000 property owners will get revaluations with property value increases greater than that number.

Many should expect to get notices with values two or three times what's on the books for 2007. And increases of that magnitude mean the possibility of massive tax increases later this year.

Assessors have spent the past 30 days trying to get the word out to business property owners, real estate agents, property managers, tax consultants and others so the figures won't be so shocking when they arrive in mailboxes as soon as Tuesday.

The numbers are going up so dramatically because Fulton has just completed a two-year, $4.1 million project to revalue every commercial property everywhere in the county, including the 14 municipalities. The county brought in consultants to review the market and update records for the first time in 15 years.

The change is so dramatic that Fulton officials say the tax base, in a county with properties already valued by assessors at $136 billion, should jump about $18 billion from the commercial revaluation alone.

Chief Appraiser Burt Manning says his office is bracing for a wave of appeals during the 45-day appeal period.