Mineola Village Green developer delays bid for tax breaks

Noah Manskar

The Nassau County Industrial Development Agency approved tax breaks for two building projects Tuesday evening, but the controversial Village Green, a housing and retail complex proposed for 199 Second St. in Mineola, was absent from the agenda.

Mineola Metro LLC, headed by developer Frank Lalezarian, asked the IDA for a last-minute postponement on its appeal for a payment-in-lieu-of-taxes, or PILOT, agreement. 

The developers told the agency it had more work to do on its application, IDA Executive Director Joseph Kearney said.

Several members of the public, including Mineola school Superintendent Michael Nagler, came to hear discussion about Village Green and left after Kearney announced the project was off the agenda. Kearney said he expects the developers will be ready by the board’s next meeting, which has not been scheduled yet.

The Mineola school district has previously raised concerns about the PILOT agreement because it cannot include the building when calculating its “tax base growth factor,” meaning it could not raise taxes to account for the students the development would bring into Mineola schools.

That concern has been partially assuaged, Nagler said, because the state Legislature is considering changes to the growth factor formula. But administrators “still haven’t seen what the change is,” he said.

The school district is also doing an independent study to determine how many new students might come from Village Green. 

At a July hearing, Mineola Chamber of Commerce President Tony Lubrano said he thought the large number of one-bedroom units proposed for the building indicated there would not be many kids in the development.

“We’re hoping (the study) will answer a bunch of other questions we have about space or the influx of kids,” Nagler said.

Lalezarian could not be immediately reached for comment.

The IDA did approve a PILOT on Tuesday for a new 165-room Hilton Garden Inn Hotel to replace a run-down health club in the Port Washington Business Park.

The board approved tax relief for the $27 million project, led by Roslyn O-S Hotel Partners, last August, but its funding fell through. 

The developers worked to reduce costs over the past year and secured financing with multiple banks contingent upon the IDA’s approval, said Dan Deegan, a lawyer representing Roslyn O-S.

The hotel’s PILOT agreement will start at just above the current real estate tax level and increase by 6 percent each year for 20 years. 

The project is expected to create 56 permanent jobs and about 300 construction jobs, Deegan said. Its total economic impact in the area is estimated at $56.7 million, according to Kearney.

“I’ve worked in the area and around the corner from it for 20 years, and this is definitely needed,” IDA Secretary Gary Weiss said.

The agency told the developers, though, that they ought to talk with the Nassau-Suffolk Building Trades about securing union construction contracts. 

Larry Levine of Roslyn O-S said he had been in touch with the union, but a representative said at the meeting it had not heard from the developers.

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