Mr. Romano also wanted to know if there is a sale to
Luminati if they would be purchasing the fifty-lot subdivision that the town’s
been working on plus or just the subdivision. Supervisor Walter replied that
the only developable property was the six hundred acres. He continued by saying
the remaining property between the wetlands, the tiger salamanders, the pine
barren and the rest of the property is not developable and the DEC is requiring
a covenant on it. He said
Luminati is just buying the six hundred acres and the two runways. Mr.
Romano also wanted to know if the sale was successful what was the sale price
and what is the town planning to do with the money. Supervisor Walter said the
sale price was forty million dollars and the money, he hoped, will be going
into a debt service account to pay the landfill debt. Laura Jens Smith wanted
to know since Luminati is an existing tenant how that would affect the
commission of Cushman and Wakefield. Supervisor Walter replied that they would
receive the full commission. Ms. Smith also wanted to know about any extensions.
Supervisor Walter said Luminati is putting down a half million dollars with a
letter of intent. The town then has thirty days to negotiate a contract and
then a total of ninety days for due diligence. If Luminati does continue with
the contract they have to pay another half a million dollars. Since there are
no extensions if Luminati should ask for an extension they would then have to
pay another half a million dollars for that extension. Supervisor Walter also
said Luminati would pay the two percent CPF Fund and the town will probably
have to pay New York State transfer tax.
04.04.2017
Phil Barbato: “This is on those two resolutions however.
Phil Barbato. I live at 211
Manor Lane, Jamesport. You’ve been deliberating mostly
behind closed doors weeks now on the
intended deal to sell almost all of the remaining
EPCAL acreage to Luminati Aerospace.”
05.17.2017
Supervisor Walter: “Phil there’s nothing behind closed
doors. In fact everything that has
to be in the public the public knows just about every aspect
of this deal except the financing
which they’re going to know shortly. There’s nothing behind
closed doors, everything is out in
the open.”
Phil Barbato: “Well perhaps you can answer the seven
questions.’’
Supervisor Walter: “Good, let’s see if I can answer them.”
Phil Barbato: “On the surface selling all that land, an
average of seventeen thousand
dollars per acre doesn’t sound like such a great deal for
the town. My first question is exactly
what land is being sold and who is it being sold to?”
Supervisor Walter: “The land will be sold to I believe it’s
going to be Luminati
Aerospace. I may not have the corporation name exactly. There’s not even six hundred
acres
developable.
The Town Board controls a hundred percent of the development and here’s where
the
interesting part is for anybody that’s developing land. We did an Impact
Statement and
we’ve
always thrown that number, six hundred acres out there. It’s honestly not a
real number.
When
you get down to brass tacks it’s probably more like four hundred and fifty
acres of land.
Irrespective of that we’ve drawn the line in the sand that
there are six hundred acres developable.
We have studied and this is where people are really going
off the deep end with. Do you know
what six hundred acres developable means out in Calverton?
Do you know how big that is? I’m
going to tell you. You don’t know because you probably
haven’t read the impact statement, ten
million square feet. The original Hauppauge Industrial Park
was just about ten million square
feet. Do you know how many employees? You didn’t read the
impact statement, I get it, ten
thousand employees. So anybody that thinks that anybody in
Calverton or Wading River wants
to see ten thousand employees in ten million square feet is
off their rocker. It’s never going to
happen. But we studied it, it’s never going to happen
because if you had read the impact
statement you would know once you get above five thousand
employees you would have to,
which is why housing component works for the traffic study,
you would have to increase the size
of Middle Country Road to four lanes without the turning
lanes and William Floyd Parkway to
six lanes. Folks, it ain’t never going to happen. You are
never seeing ten million square feet, you
are never seeing ten thousand employees. We can just get off
this six hundred acres but we have
to study something so we studied six hundred acres. I think
I probably answered your question.”
Phil Barbato: “Are you saying that the way it’s zoned today
that you could get ten
million square feet of develop?”
Supervisor Walter: “Phil, read the impact statement. That’s
what the impact statement
studied. That’s why you guys are all stuck on this six
hundred acres and it’s a great Grumman
give away. I would never want to see them develop this six
hundred which is why it’s more like
four hundred and fifty acres. And by the way, that’s why
housing has to work there because any
environmental, you know what, any environmental groups don’t
support housing at EPCAL do
you know what that’s the equivalent of? You need to have
renewable energy. I don’t want a
05.17.2017 216
the factories are building whatever Luminati wants to build
once they built them I would rather
have the three hundred employees live at EPCAL and not have
to come out into Calverton and
Wading River too much. In fact, I bet a lot of people prefer
they stay more in EPCAL. So to live,
work, play is exactly what every environmentalist, every
study, every environmental study talks
about what we’ve designed and so everybody should just back
off the six hundred acres because
the reality is the Town Board controls the zoning. The Town
Board could always limit the
amount in the future; they could limit housing, they could
increase things but you’re never going
to see it because it’s just not in the scheme of reality. We
studied it.”
Phil Barbato: “But it is allowed.”
Supervisor Walter: “Did you hear what I said?”
Phil Barbato: “You said it’s allowed, it’s just never going
to happen. You said it’s never
going to happen.”
Supervisor Walter: “Phil, you would have to increase all
construct, if you read the
impact statement which you clearly haven’t, all construction
stops if you got to five thousand car
trip hours. So you could get to five thousand car trip hours
and develop two hundred acres and
you’re done. DOT, we’ve said the DOT nothing else will
happen until all those road
improvements are made which I don’t know I don’t see us
moving William Floyd to six lanes.”
Phil Barbato: “All I’m looking at is what’s allowed on the
books (inaudible).”
Supervisor Walter: “This is the point, I wish you and
everybody else was looking at it.
You’re not looking at it.”
Phil Barbato: “The second part of my question is what is
being sold and how is it zoned
today?”
Supervisor Walter: “It is zoned, if you look at our, it’s in
the zoning schedule. The
zoning is on the books, look it up, you can look it up.”
Phil Barbato: “(inaudible) planned development. All
twenty-three hundred acres is
planned development.”
Supervisor Walter: “Yes, Sir.”
Phil Barbato: “And all of those acres could be used.”
Supervisor Walter: “No, Sir.”
Phil Barbato: “For development.”
Supervisor Walter: “No, Sir.”
Phil Barbato: “Why not?”
05.17.2017 217
Supervisor Walter: “Not even close.”
Phil Barbato: “Why not?”
Supervisor Walter: “I don’t even think you’re hearing what
I’m saying. You can only
develop.”
Phil Barbato: “I’m hearing what your saying but.”
Supervisor Walter: “But you’re not listening. Let me go
back, I’m going to do it one
more time and then we’re going to move on. You can only
develop six hundred. After you
figure out what you want to develop six hundred which you
never could because you can’t have
that kind of density without the roads.”
Phil Barbato: “Why can’t you develop the whole thing if it’s
all zoned for planned
development?”
Supervisor Walter: “Phil, I just told you why.
Councilman Hubbard: “The DEC has shut down certain acreage
up here it’s been
deemed not to be developed, that’s why.”
(inaudible)
Supervisor Walter: “I don’t understand why you don’t
understand what I’m saying. Phil,
six hundred, that’s it, that’s the number. Ten million square
feet
Phil Barbato: “If you can only develop six hundred why are
you selling the rest?”
Supervisor Walter: “Phil, let me talk to you about this
because Councilman Hubbard
mentioned something. So when you look at the tiger
salamander ponds on the property and we
have a map, I can bring it in here, you can look it up on
line, the tiger salamander ponds, I think
they go out a thousand or fifteen hundred feet, it’s not for
development. When you take into
consideration the thirty-five percent pine barrens that you
can’t develop. When you take into
consider all the wetlands you can’t develop you really don’t
have a lot of property. Those
concentric circles of all the areas that overlap in so many
places, you’re hard pressed to find even
six hundred acres, hard pressed. I’d be stunned if you could
ever develop six hundred acres.”
Phil Barbato: “So my follow up question, it’s actually one
of my seven questions here is
why are you selling the rest of it if you can’t develop it
and what.”
Supervisor Walter: “Let me answer the question.”
Phil Barbato: “And why are they interested in buying it. Why
hasn’t the town
considered (inaudible).”
05.17.2017 218
Supervisor Walter: ‘You asked a question, let me answer it.
You asked why are we going
to sell it? So, here’s the genius behind this and we’ll see
how it comes out in the contract. Here’s
the genius behind this. When he buys the whole parcel, we’re
going to put both parcels in the
sewer district so even though they’re not developable in
theory they’re all going to be taxed in
the sewer district which is going to provide tremendous
relief to the folks in the sewer district.”
Phil Barbato: “You’ll be in court the next day.”
Supervisor Walter: “It’s going to be part of the contract.
Why will we be in court?”
Phil Barbato: “You’re taxing them for land that’s not
developable.”
Supervisor Walter: “We’re putting the property in the sewer
district. Now the reason
he
wants
to buy all the property and the real genius behind this, just mowing the grass
is going to
cost
the town almost a hundred thousand dollars a year and the environmental plan
that we put in
play
would require us to mow the grass to the tune of almost a hundred thousand
dollars a year.
That doesn’t take care of all the other things the DEC wants
done, that’s just mowing the grass.
So, when
we turn the property over to him, whenever we do, you’re right he’s going to
come
back on
the sewer district but we’re going to put a lot of the property in the sewer
district, we’re
going
to get sewer taxes and we’re not going to pay a hundred thousand dollars a year
to mow
the
grass, he’s going to have to pay that. Oh, and by the way it goes all
into the school taxes.
Taxes alone for vacant land just the way it sits, one point
six million dollars, huge increase for
the tax rolls just for the vacant land. The school district
should be very happy because they get
seventy percent of it.”
Phil Barbato: “They’re not going to seek and they’re not
going to be granted any tax
exemptions?”
Supervisor Walter: “You can’t get tax abatements on, I
shouldn’t say that because there
are some caveats but this IDA is not going to give them tax
abatements on vacant land. The only
way he gets a tax abatements on vacant land there’s some
very specific criteria and they’re not
going to meet them. So just the vacant land is one point six
million. A million bucks is going to
the school district.”
Phil Barbato: “Is that something you put in the contract?
Supervisor Walter: “No, no, you can’t get it. The only way
you can get the tax
abatements on vacant land is if you build some sort of mega
complex in there and you roll it all
into pilot payment but just pure vacant land, no tax abatements,
you can’t get them, it’s not legal.
So that’s a million dollars to the school district folks,
that’s some tax relief.”
Phil Barbato: “That’s it, no tax relief is granted.”
Supervisor Walter: “You can’t get, Phil, you can’t get them,
it’s not legal.”
05.17.2017 219
Phil Barbato: “Why hasn’t the town considered retaining
ownership of those
undevelopable acres?”
Supervisor Walter: “Phil, how does this apply to the
resolution? There are two
resolutions about hiring attorneys, how does this apply?”
Phil Barbato: “You can make a beautiful park that you can
use for the education of our
children and for the future of our town (inaudible).”
Supervisor Walter: “Phil is there anything else on the
resolutions?”
Phil Barbato: “Yes.”
Supervisor Walter: “What else on the resolutions?”
Phil Barbato: “Ok, what is the status the long term lease
between the town and the car
storage company, I think it was AIA? The lease is estimated
to be fifty thousand dollars a year.
Does that transfer with the ownership?
Supervisor Walter: “No, the lease is up and we didn’t renew
it. Phil, we’re taking
comments on the resolutions, please tie it to a resolution.”
Phil Barbato: “I would ask that these questions be presented
to the two attorneys that
you’re hiring this week and that they incorporate this in
their deliberations.”
Supervisor Walter: “Tie it to the resolutions please. You
can come up afterwards.”
Phil Barbato: “I guess I’m getting a little close to the
things that you don’t want to talk
about but I really want to get these on the record. How are
the existing covenants and
restrictions on any and all parcels to become part of the
contract? What are those covenants and
restrictions? Are there any pine barrens credits that go
with this transfer of land, they’re worth
fifty thousand dollars an acre?”
Supervisor Walter: “Phil, none of those questions have to do
with the lawyers. Please
ask questions that pertain to the lawyers.”
Phil Barbato: “I would ask the lawyers to look into that
wouldn’t you?”
Supervisor Walter: “After we adopt resolutions you can come
back and discuss this for
five minutes. Do you have anything else on the resolutions?”
Phil Barbato: “Yes of course.”
Supervisor Walter: “On the resolutions? You haven’t make
one.”
05.17.2017 220
Phil Barbato: “I’m asking you if you have asked these
attorneys to ask these questions.
(Inaudible).”
Supervisor Walter: “Phil, questions on the resolutions
please.”
Phil Barbato: “You really don’t want me to talk.”
Supervisor Walter: “I’m going to invite you back up, you’ll
be last. Anyone else on
resolutions?”
John McAuliff: “John McAuliff from Jean Court in Rolling
Woods. You’ve answered
part of it by saying there would be a later comment.”
Supervisor Walter: “Yes, do you have questions?”
John McAuliff: “Yes, I have one specific question. Looking
at the letter of agreement and
wondering the implications on your contract
responsibilities, in the letter of agreement, for the first
seven articles it’s only a reference to Luminati and then in
the eighth article in the confidentiality
section, there’s a reference to Luminati and buyer. Maybe
that’s just a technical meaning but?”
Supervisor Walter: “How does that tie into the resolutions?”
John McAuliff: “Well the questions is what, who are these
lawyers negotiating with?”
Supervisor Walter: “Luminati.”
John McAuliff: “Well, who is the “and buyer”?”
Supervisor Walter: “Luminati is the buyer.”
John McAuliff: “Why is this language there, “and buyer”?
Supervisor Walter: “Sir, I’m going to invite you to come
back up after the meeting but
we’re going to take up resolutions. Anything else on
resolutions?”
John McAuliff: “No, I’ll be happy.”
John McAuliff spoke about the sale of property to Luminati.
Mr. McAuliff said in the beginning Luminati assured everyone that they had no
intention of putting housing on the property since that was not the purpose of
the purchase. However, Mr. McAuliff added that the Supervisor said it is now an
inherent part of the intention of Luminati to have housing on the property.
Supervisor Walter said that information was incorrect adding that the zoning
permits housing and the zoning was done pursuant to the SEQRA analysis which
was done pursuant to all the different smart growth, live, work, play
environments of the zoning. Mr. McAuliff said there is a lot of concern
regarding housing on this property. Mr. McAuliff now stated that he is
surprised of the lack of reference to e-mail correspondence being sent to the
town regarding this matter. The Supervisor told Mr. McAuliff that
correspondence does not go electronically to the Town Clerk and must be
submitted by someone. Supervisor Walter asked Mr. McAuliff if he understood
that there is no proposal to build housing at EPCAL. Mr. McAuliff said he
understood that but people are very concerned because housing is not
specifically prohibited in the letter of agreement. He concluded by saying
ninetyfive percent are in favor of barring Luminati from having housing on the
property being sold to them.
05.17.2017
Craig Dahlgren a resident of Calverton spoke about the land
at EPCAL that was being sold to Luminati. He continued by saying Luminati is
now being sold all of the developable and undevelopable land at EPCAL. Mr.
Dahlgren added that approximately fifteen hundred acres of the land being sold
is now wasted land since Luminati cannot develop it and the residents cannot
use it since it will be posted property. Supervisor Walter responded by saying
the cost of maintaining the undevelopable land is approximately a hundred to a
hundred-fifty thousand dollars a year and that he’s has been trying to find environmental groups to give
the fifteen hundred acres to but they want the town to pay them to take the
land because of the cost of maintaining the property. Supervisor Walter added
that the New York State DEC will not take the property and the Peconic Land
Trust was interested in taking the property only if the town would continue to
maintain the cost of the property
06.06.2017
https://www.townofriverheadny.gov/docview.aspx?doctype=minute&docid=20358
********************
Private correspondence
I don’t have and can’t find the LOI so I am relying on the info John sent me
that it is dated March 27, 2017 and that the following is a quote from the LOI.
As I understand it, the Letter of Intent of March 27, 2017 is the first
iteration of what the Town is selling Luminati. It states,
I assume exhibit A was the 50 lot subdivision. So according to
this LOI the sale was to be all the land on that map except lots 21, 42, 45, 46,
48 and 49. Those excluded lots were a total of 445.5 acres which means the LOI
was for the sale of 1661.7 acres right from the gitgo.
![]()
********************
Private correspondence
On May 3, 2019, 10:18 AM EDT jmcauliff@ffrd.org wrote:
It is gnawing at me that I can't find any record of an actual decision to increase the property being sold from 600 to 1,600 acres. It is described one way in the Board minutes of April 4, 2017, and another in those of May 15th. Did I miss something in the minutes of the intervening meetings?
Obviously, the contract is describing the expanded land.
One of our group thought the lots listed in the March 27 letter of intent were of the 1,600 acres. If that is the case, Sean badly misled on April 4th.
Is there any record prior to March 27 of the Board agreeing to sell 1,600 acres at the same price as 600? Did Jodi and Tim vote for it?
- Mr. Romano also wanted to know if there is a sale to Luminati if they would be purchasing the fifty-lot subdivision that the town�s been working on plus or just the subdivision. Supervisor Walter replied that the only developable property was the six hundred acres. He continued by saying the remaining property between the wetlands, the tiger salamanders, the pine barren and the rest of the property is not developable and the DEC is requiring a covenant on it. He said Luminati is just buying the six hundred acres and the two runways.
John
- Fee simple interest in the property known as Enterprise Park at Calverton consisting of the Developable Lots, Drainage Reserve Areas, Open Spaces/Habitat Protection Areas, Roadways, and Runway Lots as shown on the plan attached hereto as Exhibit A (the "Property"). It is the current intention of Luminati that Buyer will purchase the Property as a single lot or a minor subdivision into two lots if required because Berman Boulevard bisects the Property. Excluded from the Property are the areas labeled Lots 21, 42, 45, 46, 48, and 49 on Exhibit A and Berman Boulevard.
Thereafter as John points out Sean made many arguably misleading
statements. He repeatedly says Luminati is buying the developable property which
is 600 acres. What he fails to say is they are actually buying a lot more of
the property which was designated undevelopable on the subdivide map. Clearly
Sean intentionally muddied the waters as to the number of acres being sold but
one must return to the LOI in which the sale is 1661.
I believe Sean’s BS in subsequent meetings is responsible for everyone
thinking the sale went from 600 to 1600 acres but the LOI John quoted to me was
for 1661 acres.
Kathy 5/4/19
Hi John,
This is a perfect example of why verbatim minutes are absolutely essential.
How can we know that this summary of who said what is accurate?
You can ask the town clerk for the video DVD or audio CD of this
meeting.
I can only refer to my own notes and the story I wrote about the April 4,
2017 meeting: https://riverheadlocal.com/2017/04/05/town-moves-forward-negotiation-luminati/ In
that story I wrote, "Riverhead Town will sign a letter of intent to sell nearly
all of its remaining acreage inside the Calverton Enterprise Park to Luminati
Aerospace and begin the negotiation of a formal contract of sale."
Tim Gannon's report is nearly identical to mine. He wrote: "The Riverhead
Town Board on Tuesday unanimously authorized the signing of a letter of intent
to sell most of the remaining town-owned land at the Enterprise Park at
Calverton, including both runways, to Luminati Aerospace LLC for $40
million."
Neither of us reported that Sean said Luminati was buying only 600 acres,
as indicated in the "minutes."
In fact, it was my understanding from the week prior to the April 4 meeting
that the town and Luminati had a deal to sell almost all of the town's remaining
land.
On March 27, 2017, then-candidate Laura Jens-Smith held a press conference
at which she said there were rumors the town was going to sell all the land to
Luminati. I had not previously heard that. I contacted Sean Walter and Preston's
PR guy after Laura's press conference. I was granted an interview with Preston
the next day, March 28. During that interview, Preston told me he needed "the
whole airport."
I published this story about that interview on March 29. In it, I said the
letter of intent was for nearly all the town's remaining acreage and I initially
quoted that number as 2,100 acres (provided by the town). I amended that later,
with an editor's note, for consistency in the hope of minimizing lingering
confusion around this issue.
The letter of intent itself does not quote a number of acres. It has the
town's 50-lot subdivision map attached to it and it said in the letter of intent
that five town-owned lots on that map were excluded from the proposed sale.
Those five lots add up to 157 acres, according to the map key. There were other
areas excluded from the sale, such as the Navy-owned lot, Grumman Blvd. etc. In
any event, the LOI contemplated the sale of at least the 1644 acres spelled out
in the purchase agreement.
The vote to approve the letter of intent (taken at the CDA meeting of April
4, 2017) was indeed unanimous. (Giglio and Hubbard voted yes.)
Interesting note: the CDA minutes look like they are verbatim. Without a
recording to compare it to, we can't tell for sure. Here's the link: https://www.townofriverheadny.gov/docview.aspx?doctype=minute&docid=20572
Jodi had some questions about the bike path.
The answer to your question, when did 600 morph into 1,600 acres? I'd say
the best answer is: "When Daniel Preston told Sean Walter he needed the whole
airport," as he said to me on March 28, 2017.
Sean seems to have been so taken by Daniel Preston that he was willing to
give him whatever he asked for, do whatever Preston needed. That's based on my
observations of Sean's actual behavior.
I only know that Cushman and Wakefield was marketing roughly 600 acres — 45
of the 50 lots delineated on the subdivision map. That's what Suffolk Industrial
and Lincoln Equities were bidding on in the fall of 2016, before, apparently,
Preston decided he needed "the whole airport" for his grand plans. By that time,
his Fortune 250 investor had long since ended its LOI with Preston and much of
his "dream team had already departed," as I later learned. I do not know for
sure whether Sean knew those circumstances in late 2016 and early 2017.
I hope this helps clarify this issue for you.
Again, I cannot stress enough the need for verbatim minutes. I believe the
"minutes" of the April 4 meeting illustrate this SO very clearly. Only the
actual recording will disclose whether Sean actually said what the "minutes"
indicate he said. But Tim and I both reported otherwise. Something's not right.
If I were a betting person, I'd bet the "minutes" aren't accurate on that point.
Cheers,
Denise 5/3/19
—
Denisee Civiletti, Esq.
Editor & Publisher
224 Griffing Avenue
Riverhead, NY 11901
631-740-9099 (O)
631-603-7359 (M)
@RiverheadLOCAL
#LocalNewsMatters
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