Supervisor Sean Walter took his EPCAL show on the road today, speaking to a business organization’s breakfast meeting in Ronkonkoma this morning.
In his remarks to a meeting of Long Island Metro Business Action this morning, Walter stressed the need for redevelopment plans at the former Grumman site to include workforce rental housing — something that’s come under fire by the public and that a majority of the board now supports repealing. Zoning adopted last summer by the town board allows the development of housing at the Calverton Enterprise Park by special permit of the town board if certain requirements are met.
The supervisor also took the opportunity to pitch the Luminati Aerospace deal.
He said Luminati founder and CEO Daniel Preston, whom he characterized as “a Howard Hughes” has invested “conservatively $20 million in the Town of Riverhead.”
“Daniel’s a startup,” Walter said. “As a startup, you’re going to go up or you’re going to auger in,” he said.
“So, he finally got a backer,” Walter told the group. “There have been many suitors, but the backer he has now, you may have heard, is John Catsimatidis.” Catsimatidis, Walter said, “has come along and said he’s going to back Luminati … when the town was about to cancel the contract.”
Walter said it’s hard for business owners to understand what it’s like to deal with government, especially in the real estate business — a business, Walter said, where government doesn’t belong. “Everything we do has to be almost 100 percent transparent,” he said, adding “the atmosphere of an election year makes it more difficult.”
His rival in this year’s election, Laura Jens-Smith was in the audience this morning. She could not be reached for comment by presstime.
“But Mr. Catsimatidis is now, we think, on board,” Walter said.
Catsimatidis’ company, United Refining Energy Corp., “sent a letter to Luminati Aerospace LLC stating that UREC is highly interested in providing…the financing necessary” Luminati to complete the $40 million purchase of land as per a letter of intent entered by Luminati and the Town of Riverhead Community Development Agency in April, according to a July 14 press release issued by United Refining.
Walter had stated in interviews prior to the Catsimatidis announcement that Luminati was still seeking financing to complete the purchase.
Asked on Wednesday if United Refining had made a firm decision to go forward with the Luminati deal or if it remained “highly interested” as per its July 14 press release, United Refining spokesperson Nelson Happy said, “Nothing new.”
RiverheadLOCAL posed the same question to Happy in an email after Walter’s remarks this morning, with the same result.
“Nothing has changed. Thanks,” Happy wrote in reply.
Walter said after the meeting this morning he did not have any other information and had not yet met directly with Catsimatidis or company representatives. He denied overstating United Refining’s commitment to the Luminati deal in his remarks to the LIMBA group this morning by saying Luminati’s “finally got a backer.”
“I think if you’re being legalistic, maybe, but if you’re making a speech to a group of businessmen, you’re not writing a legal brief,” Walter said.
“I’ve asked for a sit-down with Catsimatidis,” the supervisor said.
Walter said he is unaware of any other entities or people looking to provide financial backing for Luminati Aerospace at this time, though Preston recently told him he was “speaking to Donald Trump.”
Hochbrueckner: DEC would release several hundred more acres
Among the three dozen people in the audience this morning at the Courtyard Marriott in Ronkonkoma was former congressman George Hochbrueckner, who represented the First Congressional District when Northrop Grumman announced it would close its manufacturing plant in Calverton. Hochbrueckner, a former Grumman engineer, brokered the agreement between the town and the federal government that led to the U.S. Navy conveying the 2,900-acre site inside the Grumman fence to the Town of Riverhead.
Riverhead Town hired Hochbrueckner in 2013 to help the town reach an agreement with state environmental regulators on the town’s proposed subdivision of its remaining acreage at the site.
The town’s letter of intent with Luminati speaks to conveying nearly all of the town’s remaining acreage at the site to the company. The exact amount is not yet known — the site is being surveyed by the town at Luminati’s expense. But whatever the town has remaining — as much as 1,300 acres, according to some estimates — Walter insists that environmental and other regulations, such as required improvements to access roads, limit the developable portion of the town’s remaining land holdings to about 600 acres.
In an interview after the meeting this morning, Hochbrueckner said while negotiations with the State DEC indicate about 630 acres are “developable” inside the fence, he believes that limit is subject to change, at least as far as the DEC is concerned.
“I believe we would be able to get the DEC to release several hundred more acres,” Hochbrueckner said. That would happen, he said, “through direct conversation and coming in with reasonable projects that make sense and make everybody happy and recognizing that most things in life are a function of striking balances.”
Hochbrueckner said he believes “we can strike a balance between economic development and protection of the environment.”
The former congressman turned lobbyist and consultant said the Navy land was conveyed to the town for a dollar to accomplish “economic development” and he had not considered housing as economic development — until today.
Housing as a necessary supportive use to attract companies by helping to provide a workforce is something “just laid on me this morning,” Hochbrueckner said. “It’s an interesting one.”
Hochbrueckner has worked as a consultant for Luminati Aerospace. He said this morning he is not currently employed by the startup but expects he will be again as Luminati’s plans move forward.
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