NorthPoint Development, the Kansas City, Missouri developer that proposed a 641,000-square-foot logistics center on Middle Road in Calverton, has abandoned its plans.
A New York City developer who was a joint venture partner in the development, has purchased the Kansas City developer’s interest in the company that held title to the property and plans to scale back the original proposal, reducing the development by about 150,000 square feet.
In a July 16 interview, developer David Ebrahimzadeh told RiverheadLOCAL he will not develop the site as a logistics center or “last-mile” facility, as NorthPoint had proposed, but instead will build a traditional warehouse facility to serve the regional business market, where demand for storage space remands strong.
“We’re trying to see what makes sense in a drastically scaled-down version,” Ebrahimzadeh said. “I’m here to do outreach and see what people’s comments or concerns are, while trying to balance the economics of what works, what makes sense for me as well,” he said.
His preliminary plan is to develop two warehouse buildings on the property, Ebrahimzadeh said. The buildings would be subdivided to suit the needs of individual tenants, he said.
The site plan he’s working on will fully comply with the new Calverton Industrial zoning district that’s been proposed by the comprehensive plan update, Ebrahimzadeh said. It will not require any variances. He has not yet filed an application with the town.
The approximately 40-acre property is located at 1743 Middle Road, at the terminus of Manor Road. It is vacant and wooded, with about 430 feet of frontage on Middle Road. Its rear property boundary directly abuts the clover leaf entrance to the westbound lanes of the Long Island Expressway.
The developer also said he is pursuing direct access from the site to the expressway, which will greatly reduce traffic impacts on local roads, he said.
His consultant, John Jay LaValle, who attended the RiverheadLOCAL interview, said he is optimistic direct access to the expressway will be worked out with state officials.
“I would love to get to a point where there’s a project that works for the community and works for me,” Ebrahimzadeh said. “I’m looking forward to meeting with community residents to discuss the plans.”
Ebrahimzadeh said he owned the property “50-50” with NorthPoint Development through a limited liability company, NP Riverhead Industrial, which purchased the site from three individuals in December 2021. Ebrahimzadeh said he bought out his partner’s interest in the limited liability company in late May.
A deed conveying joint title to NP Riverhead Industrial and a newly formed limited liability company, NP Riverhead, was recorded on June 3 in the office of the Suffolk County Clerk, reporting a conveyance price of $10 million. A $19 million mortgage to Alcova Origination was recorded on the same date.
NorthPoint’s communications manager did not return a phone call seeking confirmation of the transaction.
Christopher Kent, the attorney who represented NorthPoint in the Calverton development, said yesterday he is aware of the company’s transaction with Ebrahimzadeh. He said he has no direct knowledge of Ebrahimzadeh’s plans.
Ebrahimzadeh said he is upbeat about the town’s future.
“I identified Riverhead as a market that had all the makings of a flourishing community, which was fostering smart development and smart growth. And I think that from a geographic standpoint, it’s got a lot of benefits,” he said. “It’s a market that I’m looking at from a macro perspective,” Ebrahimzadeh said. “There are other projects that I’m also looking at in the area.”
He is the founder and president of Corniche Capital, a real estate development and private equity firm based in Manhattan.
“I first became aware of Riverhead because my children are avid aquarium-goers and we’re season pass holders at the aquarium here. And from there, I learned all that Riverhead has to offer,” Ebrahimzadeh said.
‘Riverhead Logistics’ proposal galvanized community opposition
NorthPoint Development first aired plans for its proposed Riverhead Logistics Center on the Middle Road site at an informal community meeting in early March 2022, prior to filing a formal site plan application with the Town of Riverhead.
The company filed the application within a month, seeking approvals to construct a 641,000-square-foot warehouse (approximately 15-acres in size), 50 feet in height on the 39.7-acre site located in the Industrial A zoning district.
The Riverhead Planning Board in July 2022 assumed lead agency in the review of the proposal and issued a positive declaration under the State Environmental Quality Review Act, thus requiring a full environmental impact statement for the proposed action.
That October, following two public scoping sessions, the Planning Board adopted a final scoping statement for the environmental impact statement, detailing the required environmental review for the project.
The adopted scoping statement required NorthPoint to analyze potential cumulative impacts of the logistics center on local roads, air quality, water supply and wastewater management in its draft environmental impact statement. It also required a more extensive traffic analysis, with the inclusion of more intersections and the examination of traffic impacts specific to distribution and logistics facilities.
NorthPoint never filed a draft environmental impact statement with the town planning department, according to planning staff.
Work on the town’s comprehensive plan update continued during this time and residents — Calverton residents in particular — asked the town to make major revisions to zoning in the hamlet, specifically seeking new restrictions on warehouses to address new types of warehouses and new types of uses. They asked the town to update its code to address traffic and other impacts from “high-cube” warehouses built for logistics and distribution in response to rising consumer demand for speedy delivery of goods purchased online — the type of facility proposed by NorthPoint Development.
Residents clamored for a moratorium on industrial development in the hamlet — where the vast majority of the town’s industrially zoned land is located — to allow the town time to complete its planning work and adopt updated codes, but the Town Board resisted their demands until January of this year. At that point, with two newly elected council members in support, the board approved a six-month moratorium on processing or taking any other action on all applications for development in industrial zones located in the Calverton hamlet (zip code 11933.) The town board extended the moratorium for three months this week.
The comprehensive plan update is still in draft form, with planning consultants working to respond to comments on the draft plan made during a public hearing and public comment period.
Draft comp plan proposes changes to industrial zoning
The draft proposes merging the existing Industrial A and C zoning use districts in Calverton (outside the enterprise park) into a new Calverton Industrial zoning district and limiting the uses to those currently allowed in the Industrial C zoning district, which includes warehouses.
The draft plan recommends decreasing the allowable density of industrial development as of right, with the option to increase density by purchasing development rights under the town’s transfer of development rights program. The purchase of development rights would preserve farmland and open space along Sound Avenue. The increased density allowed with the purchase of development rights would still be less dense than what is allowed as of right by current code, according to the draft comp plan.
Specifically, recommendations for decreasing development density call for reducing floor-area ratio, which controls the maximum amount of a building’s floor area in proportion to the land it occupies. The proposal is to reduce the current floor-area ratio from .4 — the current standard in both Industrial A and Industrial C zoning districts — to .25. A developer would be able to increase the floor-area ratio to .3 with the purchase of development rights.
Building height should be limited to 30 feet in the Calverton Industrial zoning district, with an increase to 40 feet with the purchase of development rights through the town’s transfer of development rights program, the draft plan states. Buildings over 30 feet in height should be set back further from the property line, the draft states.
The draft plan recommends code revisions to “better define” land uses that are currently not addressed by town code, or have outdated definitions. Among the land uses that should be newly defined are “warehouses” and “distribution centers,” the draft plan says.
“[T]hese uses have important differences that affect building design, transportation and truck traffic, and employment and should be defined in the code. The Institute of Transportation Engineers provides definitions for Warehouses, types of High Cube Storage, and High Cube Fulfillment Centers that could guide the Town’s zoning,” the draft plan states at page 207.
Correction: Language in this article as originally published misstated the operation of the town’s transfer of development rights program. The transfer of development rights program does not generate revenues the town can use to preserve farmland. Rather the program creates the opportunity for a private transaction between the owner of land in a designated “sending area” — typically agricultural lands — and a developer of land in a designated “receiving area.” The transaction preserves the land in the sending area from non-agricultural development and increases density in the receiving area.
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