One month after the Nassau County Industrial Development Agency withdrew an application for tax relief for The Bristal at North Hills in the face of sharp criticism from public officials, a revised application for the upscale assisted living facility is being considered at next Thursday’s IDA public board meeting.
In the revised application for a new 10-year tax break, the Bristal at North Hills cites plans to renovate the 140,000-square foot four-story building that houses the upscale assisted living facility there and to acquire a 4.22 acres of property adjacent to it. Businesses that receive IDA approval agree to payments in lieu of taxes – known as PILOTs – that are usually far less than the taxes due on a property.
Officials for the Village of North Hills and the Herricks and Great school districts, which would lose tax revenues if the tax break was approved, reacted to the revised application with the same scorn expressed for the earlier application.
“There’s got be a fix in. I’m really upset about it. It’s not a meritorious application,” said Village of North Hills Mayor Marvin Natiss.
“This whole thing smells,” Natiss added. “It’s greed.”
Natiss has said an extension of the existing PILOT for 10 years would cost his village approximately $2 million to $3 million in property taxes. The Bristal at North Hills is currently nearing the end of a 10-year PILOT agreement granted in 2002. The property at The Bristal at North Hills, which is located on the South Service Road of the Long Island Expressway, straddles the line between the Herricks and Great Neck school districts, so both districts would see a loss in taxes revenues if the new PILOT was approved.
When IDA administrators declined to present applications for the Bristal at North Hills and Bristal facilities in Massapequa and Westbury to the agency’s board last month, IDA Executive Director Joseph Kearney said, “There’s no perceptible benefit either way that would warrant the board to grant the relief as presented.” PILOT agreements are usually intended to attract new businesses that create jobs and add revenue to the local economy.
Kearney said at the time a revised PILOT application could be presented by the Bristal, which is managed by Ultimate Care New York LLC, a division of Engel Berman Group, a Garden City partnership.
Kearney said the prior application of The Bristal at North Hills also included plans to renovate the premises. He said the primary difference in the new application, which includes an application for a Bristal facility in Massapequa, is the exclusion of a PILOT application for a Bristal facility in Westbury. The proposed PILOT for the Bristal in Westbury was loudly criticized by residents in a public hearing in Westbury prior to the IDA dropping the Bristal application last month.
“With Westbury removed, it seems to make more economic sense,” Kearney said. “It makes economic sense for the staff to recommend this to the board for approval.”
He said the IDA has a commitment from the Bristal at North Hills that if the PILOT extension is approved, jobs would be added. Kearney said the IDA staff is recommending the PILOT because of the vital role the Bristal plays in the community.
“Were it to close, it would be a detriment to the community,” he said.
In considering the Bristal applications, he said, the IDA will also be approving an ownership change in the North Hills, Massapequa and Westbury facilities from Canadian-based Cardwell Capital Inc. to separate LLCs for each of the respective Bristal facilities.
A recent tour of the Bristal facility in North Hills revealed a large, well-appointed building equipped with a dining room, library, an outdoor pool and putting green and various common rooms for the use of its 165 residents. Fees range from $6,600 monthly for a two-bedroom, two-bathroom suite to $3,995 monthly for a private room in a suite for two people sharing a common room. All living spaces are equipped with kitchenettes. The management promises its residents “three healthy gourmet meals per day.” Residents are offered different levels of care, depending on their needs.
Natiss said he had been told that Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano and county Comptroller George Maragos oppose the extension of the PILOT to the Bristal at North Hills.
Justin Hernandez, a spokesman for Maragos, said the comptroller’s office had not seen the new Bristal application but said Maragos had opposed the prior PILOT extension application.
“The comptroller actively voiced his concerns to the IDA,” Hernandez said.
Attempts to reach a spokesman for Mangano were unavailing.
Nassau County Legislator Judi Bosworth (D-Great Neck) said she was “surprised” the IDA was again considering an application from the Bristal.
“Just making renovations to a building, I don’t understand why that would make them eligible for extension of a PILOT. I don’t believe a PILOT is supposed to go on in perpetuity,” Bosworth said. “It’s giving them a gift, but at taxpayer expense.”
If approved, the new property tax exemption would start in 2014 and would impact 2014-15 village and school taxes, according to a letter from Kearney to the Herricks Superintendent of Schools John Bierwirth.
The annual PILOT payment would be $852,865 in the first year, rising to $994,101 in the 10th year, according to Kearney’s letter.
“The basic problem for me personally is that, as I understand it, the function of the IDA is to spur more economic development,” Bierwirth said. “I didn’t see that in the first proposal and I don’t see that in the revised proposal.”
Bierwirth said he is concerned that the additional tax breaks for the Bristal would put further pressure on taxpayers in the Herricks School District, which has cut 47 teaching positions over the past two years to control costs.
“This property has been under a PILOT for 10 years already. It should be returned to the tax rolls,” said John Powell, assistant superintendent for business for the Great Neck School District.
Attempts to reach Ellen Attanucci, spokesperson for Ultimate Care New York, were unavailing.
The IDA hearing is scheduled to take place in the Theodore Roosevelt Executive and Legislative Building in Mineola on Jan. 31 at 5 p.m.
