For the second time in five weeks, the Nassau County Industrial Development Agency has dropped an application by the Bristal at North Hills for an extension of tax breaks following a firestorm of criticism by local officials objecting to a potential loss of revenue.
Joseph Kearney, IDA executive director, said Monday that an informal canvassing of the IDA board of directors indicated there was “tepid” support for granting the Bristal additional tax relief for its upscale senior facility.
The board was to consider a 10-year extension of existing payments in lieu of taxes, known as PILOTs, for the Bristals in North Hills, Massapequa or Westbury at its Jan. 31 meeting.
“There’s no financial assistance being granted or voted upon by the board with respect to the three properties,” Kearney said.
PILOTs had been on the table for the Bristal facilities in North Hills and Massapequa as recently as last Thursday.
Kearney said last week that an exclusion of the Westbury Bristal from the request for additional tax breaks made the new application acceptable after applications by all three facilities had been dropped last month.
In the revised application for a new 10-year tax break, the Bristal at North Hills cited 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. The existing PILOT on the property is in its final year.
School, county and village officials reacted with anger when they learned of the revised application and late last week took their opposition to Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano and Nassau County Comptroller George Maragos.
Kearney specifically cited a meeting between Village of North Hills Mayor Marvin Natiss and Mangano that he said had a direct impact on derailing consideration of the extension of tax breaks for the Bristal at North Hills.
“The county executive had a conversation with the mayor of North Hills and the county executive asked us to look at this more carefully and we did,” Kearney said.
Natiss had been joined in opposition to the Bristal’s application by officials of the Herricks and Great school districts. 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.
Kearney said the IDA will not consider any reapplication of the Bristal facilities for PILOTs in the future. What does remain on the IDA agenda this week is approval for transfer of ownership of the Bristal properties to separate LLCs created for each by the Engel Burman Group to purchase the three properties in North Hills, Massapequa and Westbury back from Canadian-based Cardwell Capital Inc.
“We’re just granting the Engel Group to acquire the property back – at a cost of $90 million, according to an earlier application – and there is no additional financial relief to be granted. The PILOTs on the property can run their normal course,” Kearney said.
Natiss, who said last week that the IDA’s decision to take up the PILOT application a second time “smells,” said he was pleased with the IDA’s decision to reverse itself.
“I’m very happy with the result. It’s the proper result. The application was totally without merit,” he said.
Natiss had said extension of PILOT for the Bristal at North Hills would have cost his village $2 million to $3 million in property taxes not realized during the life of the 10-year PILOT. Nassau County Legislator Judi Bosworth (D-Great Neck), who arranged a meeting for herself and other public officials with Maragos, called the effort to block the extension of tax breaks for the Bristal a “group effort.”
Natiss, Herricks Superintendent of Schools John Bierwirth and Great Neck Assistant Superintendent of Business John Powell joined Bosworth at the meeting with Maragos last Thursday.
“We had a very frank and serious discussion with the comptroller,” Bosworth said. “This is such a great example of communities with a common interest for our taxpayers pulling together making a case for why this could not go forward.”
Maragos spokesman Jostyn Hernandez said after the meeting the comptroller expressed his opposition to the IDA to extending the Bristal PILOT for 10 years.
Efforts to reach Mangano were unavailing.
The annual PILOT payment for the Bristal at North Hills would have been $852,865 in the first year, rising to $994,101 in the 10th year, according to a letter Kearney sent to Bierwirth informing him of the Jan. 31 hearing.
Since the Bristal at North Hills straddles the line between the Herricks and Great Neck School Districts, both districts would have been equally affected by the loss of property taxes to an extended PILOT.
“I fail to understand why the Nassau County development agency would even consider a new tax abatement. No new development has been proposed. Granting this tax relief would come at the expense of other taxpayers,” Bierwirth said. “I also fail to understand why the proposal was resurrected after being withdrawn under protest a few weeks ago.”
Jim Gounaris, Herricks school board vice president, praised the bipartisan effort that ended the Bristal tax break bid.
“Both Democrats and Republicans have made a good team to stop this from happening, something that’s just not right,” he said.
When told that Kearney said the Bristal application would not be reconsidered in the future, Gounaris said, “That‘s great. I’d love to get that in writing from the Nassau IDA.”
