The public hearing on the proposed purchase of 1,643 acres of land at the Calverton Enterprise Park by an aviation startup company will be held on Feb. 27 beginning at 7 p.m.
The Riverhead Town Board yesterday scheduled the hearing, which was adjourned from Jan. 17.
The Feb. 27 meeting will be a special meeting of the board and the public hearing is the only item on its agenda. The hearing is for the specific purpose of determining whether Calverton Aviation and Technology LLC is a “qualified and eligible sponsor,” a finding that is required by state law before the town can sell or lease property within a designated urban renewal area.
The Town of Riverhead has already negotiated a proposed contract of sale to Calverton Aviation and Technology LLC, a company recently formed by Luminati Aerospace LLC and Triple Five Realty-I LLC, which would pay the town $40 million for the land.
The contract negotiation, which spanned most of 2017, resulted from a letter of intent the town entered into with Luminati Aerospace LLC last April.
Beginning in July, Luminati Aerospace entered negotiations with United Refining Energy Corp. to form a joint venture for the purchase and development of the site. In December, an attorney for Luminati announced that the company had instead entered into an agreement with Triple Five Ventures Co. LLC, an entity owned by the Ghermezian family, owners of a multinational conglomerate of companies who are best known as developers and operators of the two largest shopping malls in North America.
A week after that announcement, the town board — at the last meeting of the year and the last meeting for two of the three town board members that supported the measure — voted 3-2 to approve a proposed contract of sale with Calverton Aviation and Technology LLC, a joint venture of Triple Five Realty-I LLC and Luminati Aerospace LLC.
Councilwoman Jodi Giglio, who on Dec. 19 voted against approving the proposed contract, last night voted against rescheduling the “qualified and eligible” hearing.
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