When it comes to the Calverton Enterprise Park, I’m skeptical of everyone and everything — including Supervisor Sean Walter’s big hopes and dreams for the site, as well as all the advice from “experts” and consultants and proposals floated by prospective purchasers.
My skepticism is rooted in nearly 20 years of observation and experience. The former Grumman site has been the subject of so many schemes and wacky deals it’s hard to keep track of them all. This decades-long reality show has featured a cast of characters ranging from Donald Trump to Steven Spielberg to Fred Wilpon to a foursome of accountants with a sketchy proposal for a theme park.
Yes, when it comes to EPCAL, skepticism is in order.
Oddly enough, skepticism has not been abundant among town officials over the years. They’ve been anxious to unload the roughly 2,900 acres “inside the fence” at the former Grumman facility, deeded to the town of Riverhead for a buck back in 1998. Over the years, officials have seen EPCAL as a cash cow, salvation from debt and the chance to deliver tax relief — especially in local election years.
As a result, town officials have opened their arms to some people and plans that should have never been taken seriously. The indoor ski mountain may be best known, but the four accountants hold a special place in the panoply of preposterous plans. Their “theme park” business plan consisted of photocopied pictures of amusement park rides. Their financing commitment — for $70 million — consisted of a phony letter on letterhead of a German commodities firm signed by a guy who didn’t even work there. (He’d been fired.)
Let’s just say Riverhead has had some issues separating the wheat from the chaff.
Maybe state legislators foresaw this kind of thing, because they adopted a law that lays down standards for the sale or lease of municipally owned land in urban renewal zones like EPCAL. The state law references rules to be established by the municipality for making the “qualified and eligible” determination.
But Riverhead didn’t have any rules — until May 2004, following reporting done by my colleagues and me at the News-Review and a couple of scathing editorials I wrote. We uncovered the phony financing letter submitted by the four accountants for their proposed “theme park.”
“Yet, somehow, four accountants who want to build a theme park … who have no experience or expertise, no business plan, no financial statements and a phony commitment letter get past the [Riverhead Development Corporation] and our crackerjack real estate broker and wind up before the Town Board at a public hearing,” I wrote in a column published April 1, 2004. “Just how does this happen? Exactly what does it take to be deemed unqualified and ineligible to do business with the Town of Riverhead at the Calverton Enterprise Park?”
The town board adopted rules adopted rules on May 18, 2004. They haven’t been revised since. And now they are way, way out of date. For starters, the rules require an application to be processed by the Riverhead Development Corporation, a local development corporation created by the town in 1996 to assist with marketing and developing the former Grumman site. The problem is, the Riverhead Development Corporation ceased to exist more than a decade ago. The town in 2006 formally dissolved the RDC.
That means that right now, according to the rules adopted by town board resolution and currently in effect, a prospective buyer like Luminati is required to submit its proposal to an entity that was dissolved by the town 11 years ago.
The town must fix this situation before going any further with the prospective buyer whose offer it is currently entertaining.
Rules formally adopted by the town, pursuant to state law, for making decisions about the sale of land in an urban renewal zone, are rules that have to be followed by the town. But the town’s rules are incapable of being followed because they include review and investigation by an entity that no longer exists.
If the town doesn’t fix this problem and moves forward with finding Luminati qualified and eligible — or finding Luminati is not qualified and eligible — it is leaving the door wide open for a lawsuit challenging its determination no matter what it decides.
Luminati’s is a high-profile proposal that is being and will be scrutinized very carefully by many people. There’s a lot at stake for the Town of Riverhead and for Luminati Aerospace. The town would do well to make sure it is standing on firm ground, no matter what it decides.
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