Riverhead Town officials heard for the first time this morning from the outside law firm they hired to review the EPCAL contract of sale and advise the town on its legal position under the contract.
The town board had a closed-door meeting this morning with members of the Melville law firm of Lazer, Aptheker, Rosella & Yedid.
Riverhead Supervisor Laura Jens-Smith said she could not disclose the board’s executive session discussion with the lawyers but she thought it was productive.
Jens-Smith said the town board has scheduled a presentation by Calverton Aviation and Technology at its work session next Thursday, Aug. 1, regarding its development plans for the site. The meeting will start at 8:30 a.m., she said.
The town board hired the new law firm last month, following reports of a multimillion lawsuit and eviction proceedings against Luminati Aerospace, a partner with Triple Five Group in Calverton Aviation and Technology, the firm in contract to buy 1,644 acres of vacant land at the Calverton Enterprise Park from the Riverhead Community Development Agency for $40 million. Luminati Aerospace is also a key business in the development plan for the site as set forth in the contract of sale, which the town signed in November and as detailed in the qualified and eligible sponsor hearing held by the agency last year.
Luminati Aerospace principal Daniel Preston has told two news organizations he’s relocating operations from the Calverton Enterprise Park to upstate Little Falls.
In October, Preston told InnovateLI.com he was locating Luminati’s VTOL division in Little Falls, since “the extended delay in obtaining Riverhead’s approval” of the EPCAL sale has “caused a lot of uncertainty.” The website quotes Preston saying, “I could not wait forever to decide where to locate the business and jobs. I hope the town’s approval is obtained before I have to decide where to locate the other helicopter-related businesses we have acquired.”
In April, he told the local news website MyLittleFalls.com he had decided to relocate his entire operation to Little Falls. The website reported:
“Preston said ‘I was going to leave the composite work back in Long Island, but since then, I just made the complete decision that my life is really here, not there. I’m going to be a landowner and investor on that property (in Long Island), but I’m two feet out the door and I don’t really enjoy being there. I enjoy being here.’”
Riverhead Councilwoman Jodi Giglio said last month she does not believe news reports that Luminati has given up on Calverton. “I haven’t heard that from Daniel myself,” Giglio said.
Preston has not responded to requests for comment.
Preston, who purchased a residence and a vacant industrial building in Little Falls in July and November of 2017, respectively, in May purchased another industrial building, the 110,000-square-foot former Redco Foods facility on Hansen Island in Little Falls, through two limited liability companies.
He has been working with a machinist in Little Falls to build two one-man helicopters, one of which is powered by an electric motor, according to this report on the MyLittleFalls.com website. Preston and his partner are displaying the aircraft this week at the aviation show and conference in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.
It is not clear whether Luminati’s Calverton headquarters, purchased in the name of its wholly owned subsidiary, 400 David Court LLC, from Skydive Long Island in November 2015 for $3.4 million, is occupied.
Luminati Aerospace has exclusive use of the active 10,000-foot runway at the EPCAL site under a 10-year runway use agreement entered with the town in November 2015 for an annual fee of $31,810. Earlier this year, after a report that Luminati was behind in its runway lease payments and owed the town over $20,000 in false alarm fees, Triple Five paid the past-due runway rent.
Luminati has leased a portion of its land adjacent to the taxiway to the aviation startup Launcher, which has set up a facility for the testing rocket engines it is developing at its headquarters in Brooklyn. Launcher has been operating there since April 2017, without the site plan approval town officials say is required. In fact, neither Luminati Aerospace nor 400 David Court LLC ever obtained permits or site plan approval for any of the work done at the site. 
Luminati had also occupied a portion of the enormous Plant Six building it rented from Laoudis of Calverton. Luminati rented those premises in July 2016 because, Preston said that June, the company needed a bigger space for manufacturing a line of sea planes Preston announced would be in production by November 2016. The new space would also be used for research and development of the ultralight unmanned aircraft Preston said he was developing to deliver wireless internet to unserved areas of the globe. Production of the sea plane never got underway and although Luminati installed various equipment and machinery in the Plant Six building and held a media event in June 2017 to declare Plant Six “operational,” it is not clear what, if anything, was ever developed or manufactured there.
Luminati surrendered possession of the Plant Six building in April, after Laoudis of Calverton commenced eviction proceedings for nonpayment of rent.
Hexcel Corporation, which in 2016 made a $10 million loan to Luminati, filed a lawsuit against the company in March, alleging various defaults in its loan agreement, accelerating the debt and seeking an order allowing it to seize equipment held on the premises occupied by Luminati at the enterprise park. The court granted the seizure order. The lawsuit remains pending. Laoudis then sued Hexcel to recover possession of the premises, where the seized equipment and machinery remained. Laoudis and Hexcel entered into a settlement allowing Hexcel to retain possession of the premises until October, according to court documents. Hexcel also has a $3.4 million mortgage on the former Skydive property.
The supervisor and some council members have pressed Calverton Aviation and Technology to come to a work session to discuss development plans for the site, in light of questions about Luminati Aerospace and the publication last month of maps and plans prepared by a Triple Five consultant.
The State Department of Environmental Conservation, in response to a Freedom of Information Law request, produced an 18-page document showing 10 million square feet of development along both runways on the property.
CAT’s attorney Christopher Kent and its development manager Amy Herbold of Triple Five Group both told RiverheadLOCAL the drawings and plans submitted to the DEC did not represent the company’s actual development plans for the site. Kent has said in interviews that the company is devising plans he described as “very exciting” and promised a public presentation would soon be forthcoming.
Herbold did not respond to a request for comment this week.
Editor’s note: This story was updated after publication to reflect additional information provided by the town supervisor in a phone interview.
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