A History of Riverhead’s EPCAL Misadventure with Luminati,
Calverton Aviation and Technology (CAT)
and the Ghermezian Family (Triple Five)
1) In 2017 over one thousand environmentally
sensitive acres were added to a proposed sale of 600 acres to Luminati
Corporation, owned by the late Daniel Preston, absent significant public discussion
by the 100% partisan but divided Town Board.
The new contract also included two massive runways that had not
previously been a part of the deal. There
was no increase to the $40,000,000 sale price. After Mr. Preston’s resume and financial
backing were exposed as fictitious, he abandoned Riverhead, leaving behind
debts and unfulfilled commitments.
2) The Ghermezian
family operating through corporate entities of Triple Five suddenly appeared, taking
advantage of the special deal given to Mr.
Preston in a contract approved at the final meeting of that Board. Although purporting to follow Preston’s
development plan and make use of his reputed scientific expertise, Triple Five marginalized
him as a 25% non-voting partner in CAT and to avoid further embarrassment paid
his debt to the town. The original corporate structure for the development
group was replaced without a new letter of intent.
3) The next Board’s 3-2 partisan majority decided
that CAT was Qualified and Eligible to purchase EPCAL without public financial
disclosure because Triple Five is privately owned by the Ghermezian family, the
75% partner. (2018-2019)
4) The majority depended on the vote of a Board
member who had met privately in New York with representatives of the Ghermezian
family. Our appeal to the Town Ethics
Committee to require her recusal based on conflict of interest failed on the
grounds that a Riverhead Board member was not constrained by State hearing
ethics guidelines
5) The partisan majority refused to consider the
history of the Ghermezian family in alleged corruption in Las Vegas, its hard
ball politics in a Miami mall project and massive political donations in New
Jersey to obtain permission under Governor Christie to build the American Dream
mall west of the Hudson River.
6) The successor even more partisan 4-1 Board
(2020-2021) and the Riverhead Chamber of Commerce gave credulity to two Israeli
companies introduced by the Ghermezians that would solve their financial and
technological development problems.
These companies also were discredited and have completely disappeared
from further discussions.
7) The previous one sided and current single
party Town Board (2022-2023) would not address seriously the financial crisis
facing the Ghermezians because of the debacle and deep indebtedness of the
American Dream mall. Board members have accepted
uncritically over the past six years CAT’s rationalization of the separation of
Triple Five linked corporations controlled by the family and thus of any negative
financial impact on EPCAL’s future development.
They ignored the alleged criminality of a family company’s sale of counterfeit
chemically dangerous sanitizers during covid.
8) Rather than exercise its authority to
terminate a contract disparaged by the supervisor herself, in an effort to
circumvent DEC permit regulations the current Town Board concocted a leasing
scheme to turn over its authority to the Riverhead Industrial Development
Agency. The inherent problems in that
arrangement are outlined in opinion pieces by EPCAL Watch Board members Angela
De Vito and Andrew Leven cited below
(Full disclosure: both are
candidates in the November town election.)
9) After six years of promoting its intention to
create high paying aerospace and technology jobs, "the Silicon Valley of the
East Coast", the Ghermezians’ representatives revealed in a presentation
to the RIDA that the real development plan (as also seen on an earlier
"unauthorized" design) is an air cargo distribution hub with
10,000,000 square feet of warehousing along the two runways left by
Grumman.
10) The Town Board’s tolerance of the
Ghermezians’ diversions and misrepresentations through CAT has prevented any
ability to act on behalf of the taxpayers and seek other projects and
developers for EPCAL and to encourage more creative and positive thinking about
use of an irreplaceable natural resource.
11) The most recent RIDA Board meeting revealed
that its governance committee met in January and in March of 2023 to review the
CAT application for RIDA benefits. This
was done behind closed doors and without the full RIDA board involved in its
discussions.
Additional resources
Agreement
of Sale December 28, 2017
document958092538030718.pdf
(municipalone.com)
Letter
to the Riverhead Town Board from EPCAL Watch September 21, 2020
https://saveepcal.blogspot.com/2020/09/epcalwatch-coalition-156-youngs-avenue.html
Resolution
and Letter of Agreement between Riverhead CDA and CAT for joint application to
RIDA
2022-03-09-CDAResolutionforEPCALtransfer1505120824030922PM.pdf
(municipalone.com)
2022-03-03-LetterfromCATreEPCALsale1505120916030922PM.pdf
(municipalone.com)
CAT
/ Ghermezian plans for a jetport cargo distribution hub
Planned
IDA vetting process
IDA
prejudgement of October closing and revelation of its financial self-interest
Systemic
organizational and financial problems of Riverhead IDA
https://riverheadlocal.com/2023/04/17/is-the-riverhead-ida-serving-the-publics-interest-with-many-big-projects-about-seek-agency-benefits-the-answer-is-critical/
Letters
from EPCAL Watch to IDA and opinion pieces by members
https://saveepcal.blogspot.com/2023/04/epcal-watch-letters-and-articles-re-ida.html
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