Triple Five will provide some additional financial information, supervisor says

Triple Five has responded to the town’s request for additional financial disclosure by offering to provide the town with additional information, according to Supervisor Laura Jens-Smith.

“They said they would provide us with assurance of the $40 million to purchase the property and some pro forma information for the buildout, including some assurance of financing,” Jens-Smith said in an interview this morning.

The company’s response came in late yesterday afternoon, at the deadline set by the town for the company to say if it would provide the additional financial disclosure sought by a majority on the town board.

The supervisor said she felt the company “half-answered the questions we asked.”

However, she said, the board has not had a chance to sit down and review the response together. “We need to determine if what they say they’ll provide will be satisfactory.”

Deputy Supervisor Tim Hubbard and Councilwoman Catherine Kent were both on vacation this week so the full board will sit down to discuss it next week, Jens-Smith said.

A Triple Five representative could not immediately be reached for comment.

Triple Five subsidiary Triple Five Realty-1 and Luminati Aerospace own Calverton Aviation and Technology LLC, which is seeking to purchase 1,643 acres of undeveloped land from the Riverhead Community Development Agency for $40 million. The town signed a letter of intent to sell the property to Luminati Aerospace in April 2017 and in December approved a purchase agreement with Calverton Aviation and Technology in furtherance of the letter of intent. The agreement is subject to a finding by the town board, sitting as the board of directors of the Riverhead CDA, that Calverton Aviation and Technology is a “qualified and eligible sponsor” as required by state law for the no-bid sale of municipal land in an urban renewal zone.

Triple Five and town officials have been wrangling over how much financial disclosure the private, family-owned company should be required to make. The company has asserted privacy concerns about turning over financial records to the town and offered to allow an independent accounting firm review pertinent records at the town’s own expense. Its representatives have argued that the company has already provided sufficient disclosure for the town to make a decision. Three of the five town board members sought additional disclosure and gave Triple Five until close of business Friday, Aug. 2 to let the town know what it would do.