IDA grants tax incentives for Edwards Avenue development

The Riverhead Industrial Development Agency today approved tax incentives for the developer of a 16,667 square foot facility off Edwards Avenue in Calverton where Allied Building Products Corp. plans to open its 12th New York location next year.

The developer will receive a partial abatement of real property taxes for a period of 10 years and will be exempt from sales and mortgage recording taxes under a resolution unanimously adopted by the IDA this evening.

The vote followed a public hearing on the application for incentives at which Paul Elliott, representing the developer, 1998 Peconic LLC, and David Doran, northeast regional manager for Allied Building Products, testified that a previously executed lease between the parties was contingent upon the granting of the IDA benefits. Doran told board members that Allied was deciding between Calverton and a site in the Hamptons Business District at Gabreski Airport in Westhampton. No one besides the applicant testified at the hearing.

The financial incentives were the deal-maker, Doran said after the meeting.

“No deal is done,” Doran said. “The lack of benefits would squash the deal,” he said.

It was not clear whether the company would be provided with similar benefits at the Westhampton site.

Asked after the meeting whether Allied had spoken to the Suffolk County IDA or had entered into negotiations for a site in Westhampton, Doran declined to provide specifics.

“We have spoken with brokers in the past,” he said. “We know what they offer and they are very competitive. We have information that’s allowing us to make a business decision.”

The developer obtained site plan approval for the construction in February. The Riverhead planning board approved an amendment to the site plan last week.

Elliott said after the meeting that 1998 Peconic has not been in negotiations with any other prospective tenant for the warehouse, showroom and office facility depicted on its approved site plan. “Just Allied,” Elliott said.

1998 Peconic will continue to pay 100 percent of its current real property tax bill, which is based on a vacant land assessment of $33,000. The tax abatements apply to all improvements to the site, which will receive a 100-percent abatement in 2014-2015, 90 percent in 2015-2016, 80 percent in 2016-2017, 70 percent in 2017-2018, and so forth, with a 10 percent annual decline in the abatement until the property owner pays the full property tax beginning in the 2024-2015 tax year.

Allied Building Products, based in East Rutherford, New Jersey, is a subsidiary of the publicly traded CRH, which is headquartered in Dublin City, Ireland. Allied, established in 1950, has more than 3,000 employees and more than 180 locations.

1998 Peconic LLC owns a six-acre site on the east side of Edwards Avenue, south of Middle Country Road in Calverton. It is zoned for industrial use. Elliott and James Miller of Miller Environmental are principals in the company.

Photo caption: David Doran, left, of Allied Building Products Corp. and Paul Ellliot, at a public hearing before the Riverhead IDA board Monday evening.