By GREGORY ZELLER //
A massive new Nassau warehouse and an eight-building Suffolk senior-rental complex highlight a busy month for Long Island’s countywide industrial development agencies.
The Suffolk County Industrial Development Agency on May 5 announced preliminary approval for tax breaks benefitting EB at Commack LLC, a spinoff of Jericho-based B2K Development planning a 133,736-square-foot senior rental complex on Hauppauge Road Commack. The estimated $57.7 million project – with well-known regional developers David Burman, Jan Burman, Steven Krieger and Jonathan Weiss at the wheel – is projected to raise 86 rental units on 7.6 currently vacant acres.
On May 11, it was the Nassau County Industrial Development Agency notching a win, issuing final approvals for an incentives package that will help RG Crossways Owner LLC – an affiliate of the New York City-based Rockefeller Group – complete work on the Crossways Logistics Center, a 145,000-square-foot warehouse facility already under construction on roughly nine acres in Woodbury.
Both projects checked off the IDAs’ requisite economic-development boxes.
RG Crossways’ $54.7 million warehouse is projected to create 154 construction-phase and 68 full-time equivalent jobs, while generating about $22.1 million in tax revenues during the life of its 20-year Payment In Lieu Of Taxes deal – a 200 percent increase over taxes that would be generated by the current property.
The EB at Commack effort is slated to create 182 temporary jobs during a 30-month construction phase, with “40 annual direct and indirect employment opportunities” waiting in the completed senior complex, according to the Suffolk IDA – and $7.1 million in property taxes paid during its 15-year PILOT program, more than tripling the property’s current tax revenues.
Small idea: This artist’s rendition might not do justice to the Crossways Logistics Center’s actual size.
The LLC – which is reserving 12 of the age-restricted rental units as affordable and workforce housing – has also committed to contributing $400,000 to the Town of Huntington’s Affordable Housing Trust and Agency Fund.
The new senior-housing opportunities, increased tax revenues and other socioeconomic benefits made the 15-year PILOT an easy call, according to Suffolk County IDA Executive Director Tony Catapano.
“The IDA is pleased to … provide additional quality senior housing options in Suffolk County,” Catapano said. “The complex will not only bring much-needed housing to the region but will be a significant tax generator for the local community.”
The same can be said for the new warehouse in Woodbury, which will pack 43 loading docks, 23 trailer-storage spaces and plenty of other parking – suitable for one or more tenants and representing another storage/distribution solution in the demanding e-commerce age, according to Nassau County IDA Chairman William Rockensies.
“The Nassau IDA is very impressed with the rapid progress being made at the construction site and seeing this facility really start to take shape,” the chairman said in a statement. “We’re pleased to have voted in favor of this project that will create many jobs, increase tax revenue and support the increasing movement of goods and materials across Long Island.”
