Town board to vote on hiring new law firm on Luminati matters

At a special meeting this morning at 9:30, the Riverhead Town Board will consider a resolution appointing the law firm of Sinnreich, Kosakoff & Messina of Central Islip to collect outstanding false alarm fees owed to the town by Luminati Aerospace and enforce the town’s runway use
agreement with Luminati.

As first reported by RiverheadLOCAL last week, Luminati owes $22,820 in false alarm fees in connection with its premises it owns at 400 David Court, according to Riverhead Police Department records obtained by a Freedom of Information Law request.

Luminati, which has control of the town-owned 10,000-foot runway at EPCAL under a runway use agreement signed in November 2015, has not made a monthly payment to the town since September, Supervisor Laura Jens-Smith said last week. The company had been paying $2,765 per month, she said. The agreement calls for an annual rent payment, with the term running from Nov. 1 through Oct. 31 each year for 10 years.

The supervisor said the town board has not yet “received a conclusive answer” from its current legal counsel on what impact, if any, a recently filed $12 million lawsuit against Luminati Aerospace has on the town’s pending EPCAL land deal. The town has a contract to sell nearly all of its remaining land at the Calverton Enterprise Park to a company part-owned by Luminati for the development of an aviation technology park featuring Luminati as a central tenant, according to the development plan spelled out in the contract.

According to the contract, prospective businesses expected to locate at the property include Luminati Aerospace, companies that will “support Luminati’s operations,” businesses that can “benefit from use of the runways,” “technology businesses that will have a synergistic relationship with other companies located at or near the property” and an entity referred to as “the Federal Aviation Authority” — presumably an erroneous reference to the Federal Aviation Administration.

Investor Hexcel Corporation has declared Luminati in default on a $10 million promissory note and filed an action in State Supreme Court last month seeking to seize Luminati’s equipment and other personal property at its Calverton facilities to partially satisfy the debt. Hexcel also holds a first mortgage in the 400 David Court property, which it bought from Skydive Long Island in September 2015.

Luminati, facing eviction from its leased 35,102-square-foot premises at 350 Burman Boulevard, also known as “Plant Six,” for nonpayment of rent, agreed to surrender the premises to landlord Laoudis of Calverton in settlement of that legal proceeding.

Luminati principal Daniel Preston has publicly stated he has relocated Luminati’s “VTOL division” to the upstate city of Little Falls. He has formed a new company called Luminati VTOL, launched a new website and purchased at least one commercial building and a residence in Little Falls, according to Herkimer County records.

“I believe we need to get an answer to these questions,” Jens-Smith said yesterday. She said the board is waiting for the lawyer who has represented the town in the contract negotiations and qualified and eligible process to advise them on whether any of these matters affect the town’s contract of sale.