By GREGORY ZELLER //
A fresh-from-the-oven Nassau County Industrial Development Agency incentives package will help a stalwart regional bakery expand its already impressive regional operations.
Carle Place-based Cardinali Bakery, a family-owned business since its 1975 launch, will acquire and renovate a 25,639-square-foot building in Oyster Bay’s Hamlet of Woodbury, to serve as the multi-location bakery’s base of operations.
The company will continue to operate the retail portion of its Carle Place facility, but will move its wholesale-baking and other manufacturing operations – including 40 full-time positions and up to 29 new ones over the next three years, according to the Nassau IDA – to Oyster Bay.
The $6 million company investment will be supported by a mortgage tax-abatement and a sales- and use-tax exemption of $110,176, along with a 15-year Payment In Lieu Of Taxes agreement – when all is said and done, roughly $200,000 per year in tax assistance, as calculated by Nassau IDA Chief Executive Officer Harry Coghlan.
Harry Coghlan: Let them eat tax abatements.
“Nassau County is a high-cost region,” Coghlan noted. “When expanding a business, these tax savings and payment schedules can be the deciding factor to either remain in Nassau or relocate operations elsewhere.
“The $200,000 per year in tax assistance, which is needed for Cardinali Bakery’s expansion to be viable, is quickly recaptured, with a significant return by the varying economic outputs the hiring of more employees and usage of local businesses and vendors provides,” the CEO added.
Despite the breaks – which will allow the company to “continue investing in the community that has supported us all of these years,” according to Cardinali Bakery owner Joseph Mauro, son of founder Giuseppe Mauro – the bakery operation is expected to generate more than $195 million in regional economic benefits over the next decade-and-a-half, including more than $2.4 million in PILOT payments and nearly $13 million in annual taxable sales, according to the IDA.
“We are thrilled that our family-run business can remain in Nassau County and expand to allow for more products and more employees,” Joseph Mauro said. “Nassau County has been our home for decades.”
Nassau IDA Chairman Richard Kessel said businesses like Cardinali Bakery are proven employment boosters – including a projected 50 construction jobs during the planned Oyster Bay renovation – and the perfect targets for IDA assistance.
“Cardinali Bakery is part of the vital food industry sector in the region, employing dozens of full-time and part-time employees,” Kessel said in a statement. “The [IDA] assistance ensures that those jobs remain here while also creating new employment opportunities for Nassau County residents.”
