Calverton Aviation and Technology (CAT), owned by the controversial Ghermezian family, wants to build an air cargo distribution hub at the EPCAL site in Riverhead and has asked the Riverhead Industrial Development Agency (RIDA) to help fund it.
This project will involve frequent domestic and
international flights that change our quality of life, ruin our peace and
quiet, and depress property values for at least a ten mile radius…New
Suffolk, Remsenburg, Shirley, Miller Place.
The plan includes:
- activation of
both runways for air cargo planes
- construction of
10M square feet of logistics warehouses including flex buildings and
distribution centers
- thousands of
tractor trailers trucks which will spill onto already clogged roads
- new taxiways that
will destroy acres of DEC identified prime grasslands impacting threatened
birds species; stormwater runoff will impact endangered amphibian species
living in the geologically rare kettle ponds
- construction
will cause disturbance of already contaminated soils and alter the
movement of the already contaminated water
- additional
contamination from airport and industrial operations will further impact
our drinking water.
·
heavily
automated warehouses that pay relatively low non-union wages
·
1600 resalable acres of
land for $40,000,000, substantially below market value
·
removal
of 1000 protected acres from the public good, subject to corporate economic
priorities.
The Riverhead Industrial Development Agency (RIDA) must not
consider offering public money for this speculative development until all other
regulatory approvals are in place.
What can you do?
·
Stop by our booth, number
64, near Tweeds Restaurant if you have questions, for printed information and
to join our campaign to save our communities.
·
Participate in a public
program with EPCAL Watch hosted by the Heart of Riverhead Civic 6:30 – 8
p.m., August 17, Vail Leavitt Theater, Riverhead.
·
Invite EPCAL Watch to
speak to your civic, homeowners’ association, religious institution or social
club.
·
Tell RIDA and Town Board
members how you feel by e-mail and letters, if you cross paths in person and by
signing our petition. https://www.change.org/saveEPCALnow
·
During the election campaign,
ask all candidates for supervisor and town board what their position is on
EPCAL and on an air cargo distribution hub. If RIDA says no and it comes
back to the town board, will they vote to declare the contract null and void?
·
If you are not a Riverhead
resident, talk to neighbors and friends and contact your own elected officials so
they embrace and forward concerns of the region to Riverhead authorities.
·
Tell us you can make a
contribution if we have to go to court to stop an air cargo hub.
·
If you have a home in
Riverhead, don’t forget to vote on November 7. If your residence here is
seasonal, protect it by registering to vote in Riverhead for this election, completely
legal under NY state law.
EPCAL Watch
epcalwatch@gmail.com Follow
EPCAL Watch on Facebook
RESOURCES
CAT / Ghermezian plans for a jetport cargo
distribution hub https://riverheadlocal.com/2022/09/22/air-cargo-logistics-hub-in-calverton-planned-by-triple-five-affiliate-to-enhance-package-delivery-services-on-long-island/
Compilation of investigative articles in Riverhead
Local https://riverheadlocal.com/2023/05/01/triple-five-timeline/
OPINION | EDITORIAL
“ Hey, Triple Five. We get it. Do you?”
https://riverheadlocal.com/2023/05/07/hey-triple-five-we-get-it-do-you/
“Might Calverton become an Amazon Air hub in the
future? Long Island is a ‘unique difficulty’ for Amazon, researchers say” https://riverheadlocal.com/2023/05/26/might-calverton-become-an-amazon-air-hub-in-the-future-long-island-is-a-unique-difficulty-for-amazon-researchers-say/
“Federal court green-lights adding Nader Ghermezian as
defendant in civil racketeering lawsuit over counterfeit hand sanitizer” https://riverheadlocal.com/2023/06/05/federal-court-green-lights-adding-nader-ghermezian-as-defendant-in-civil-racketeering-lawsuit-over-counterfeit-hand-sanitizer/
Letters from
EPCAL Watch to RIDA and the Town Board, opinion pieces by members https://saveepcal.blogspot.com/2023/04/epcal-watch-letters-and-articles-re-ida.html
********************************************************************************
Save EPCAL from an air cargo distribution hub
The only way to truly protect 1,000 environmentally sensitive acres at EPCAL as demanded by 7,049 petition signers is to stop the whole discredited deal. Otherwise, the Ghermezian family plans to build an air cargo distribution hub at EPCAL.
When the Ghermezians made their case
to the Riverhead Industrial Development Agency (RIDA), everyone (apparently including
the Town Board!) discovered that their actual intended use of the land is no
longer high paying technology jobs or creating a Silicon Valley of the East.
As you can see in their own architect's rendering above, they want to build ten
million square feet of distribution, warehouse and support buildings around the
10,000 and 7,000 foot runways. Large cargo jets will land to unload on one
side of the warehouses. Tractor trailers that line up on the other side
will clog our roads. (A 680,000 sq ft Amazon warehouse in California and
a smaller warehouse next door together generated nearly 6,000 vehicle trips per
day, including more than 2,300 diesel truck trips.)
Imagine the contamination from noise and jet fumes of EPCAL's natural treasures
and the impact on the quality of life (and property values) of thousands of
east end residents. Aviation reports say jet cargo planes will be
at 1500 to 2000 feet of altitude within five miles of the runways, i.e.
as far east as Mattituck and Hampton Bays and as far west as Pt.
Jefferson and Patchogue. By the time they are over Calverton and Rocky Point,
the planes will be flying at less than 1000 feet.
We know this only because the Riverhead Town Board without legal precedent
handed over its authority to RIDA to avoid the mess it got into with the
Department of Environmental Conservation and the Suffolk County Water Authority
about subdivision of the land.
RIDA is supposed to objectively evaluate the development plan of the
Ghermezians and their financial viability to complete it--despite the debacle
of their heavily indebted American Dream mall in New Jersey and allegations of
fraud, trademark violations and chemical contamination of an imported sanitizer
product during Covid.
RIDA could not begin its investigation because the Ghermezians were late in
transferring operating funds and financial information. But RIDA foretold
its conclusion prior to any due diligence by telling an auditor that the deal
would close in October. It needs to honor its own deadlines and
find the Ghermezians in default which will bring the EPCAL nightmare to an end.
All IDAs are inherently compromised by dependence on applicant fees from
closings and follow-up. RIDA was explicit to the auditor that it relied on the
EPCAL closing to "continue as a going concern".
RIDA has given the Ghermazians the opportunity to once again put lipstick on a
pig and explain why their representatives didn't mean what they told the IDA.
After you hear their latest spin tonight, if you are not satisfied, please send
an e-mail or a letter to Tracy Stark-James, director of the IDA
<director@riverheadida.org> Copy it to the Town Board
<wilhelm@townofriverheadny.gov> and to <epcalwatch@gmail.com>
The IDA must turn down all tax abatements and refuse to authorize the CAT
project. The Town Board, as constituted now, or on taking office after the
November election, must commit itself to declare null and void this unfortunate
contract.
The newly elected Supervisor and Board must start fresh in discussion with the
public to conceive and sell environmentally self-sustaining, economically
productive, and community responsible use of the 600 acres of developable land
at a fair market price. They must guarantee for our children and
grandchildren the undamaged preservation of the 1,000 irreplaceable acres.
*************************************************************************
RESOURCES
- A summary of the last six years
of the EPCAL saga is https://saveepcal.blogspot.com/2023/04/a-summary-history-of-epcal-deal.html
- "Air cargo logistics hub in
Calverton planned by Triple Five affiliate to enhance package delivery
services on Long Island" https://riverheadlocal.com/2022/09/22/air-cargo-logistics-hub-in-calverton-planned-by-triple-five-affiliate-to-enhance-package-delivery-services-on-long-island/
- "Audit reveals Riverhead IDA
anticipates October closing with Calverton Aviation & Technology, for
major boost to agency’s sagging bottom line" https://riverheadlocal.com/2023/04/06/audit-reveals-riverhead-ida-anticipates-october-closing-with-calverton-aviation-technology-for-major-boost-to-agencys-sagging-bottom-line/
- The latest version of the
Ghermezians' plan for public consumption is here https://riverheadida.org/pdf/projects/CATIH_Business_Plan_Revised_Exhibit_B.pdf
- "Town Board members claim
they didn’t see controversial EPCAL air cargo plans before they were
publicly presented to Riverhead IDA" https://riverheadlocal.com/2023/04/26/town-board-members-claim-they-didnt-see-controversial-epcal-air-cargo-plans-before-they-were-publicly-presented-to-riverhead-ida/
- A compilation of articles by the
Riverhead Local https://riverheadlocal.com/2023/05/01/triple-five-timeline/
- Letters and articles from EPCAL
Watch https://saveepcal.blogspot.com/2023/04/epcal-watch-letters-and-articles-re-ida.html
156 Youngs Avenue Riverhead, New York 11901 epcalwatch@gmail.com 631.369.8237
*******************************************************************************
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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 single party 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 paid his debt to the
town. The original corporate structure for the development group was replaced
without a new letter of intent.
3) In 2018-2019, the new Town Board 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.
4) In 2018, a member of the Board met privately
in New York with representatives of the Ghermezian family. EPCAL Watch
felt strongly that this meeting was highly inappropriate and appealed to the
Town Ethics Committee asking recusal based on conflict of interest. The
Committee decided that the Board member was not constrained by State ethics
guidelines for hearings. If she had
recused, a 2-2 tie would have terminated the contract.
5) The Town Board majority continued to refuse to
consider the history of the Ghermezian family in alleged corruption in Las
Vegas, its hard ball politics in a Miami mall project, exploitation of host
towns, and massive political donations in New Jersey to obtain permission to
build the American Dream Mall west of the Hudson River.
6) In 2020-2021, the Town Board and the
Riverhead Chamber of Commerce gave credulity to an Israeli company Arieli
Capital introduced by the Ghermezians, a shareholder, that would solve their
financial and technological development problems. Arieli also was
discredited and has disappeared from CAT presentations. Additionally in
2021, the Brookhaven IDA moved to terminate its agreement with the Ghermezians
because their company could not fulfill its obligations.
7) Continuing into 2022-2023, the next Town
Board did not address seriously the financial crisis facing the
Ghermezians because of the debacle and deep indebtedness of the American Dream
mall. Board members accepted uncritically over the past six years the
Ghermezians legally misleading 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 clear 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 linked below.
9) After six years of promoting its intention to
create high paying aerospace and technology jobs, "the Silicon Valley of
the East", the Ghermezians’ representatives revealed in a presentation to
the RIDA that the real development plan (as also seen on an earlier
"unauthorized" design) is a jet cargo hub with 8.4 million square feet of logistics and distribution buildings
along the two runways left by Grumman.
10) The Town Board’s tolerance of the
Ghermezians’ diversions and misrepresentations through CAT has blocked the
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) A 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. A RIDA auditor letter
suggests prejudgment of an October closing and potential conflict of interest
because of financial benefit.
12) The current Supervisor confirmed that the
contract (which came from Luminati’s computer) is the worst contract that she,
as a professional realtor, has ever seen and that nothing in it prevents the
Ghermezians from flipping the property.
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
Nader Ghermezian, chairman of Triple
Five, denounces the Town Board https://youtu.be/7R-CTtt5FVM
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.c
CAT / Ghermezian plans for a jetport
cargo distribution hub https://riverheadlocal.com/2022/09/22/air-cargo-logistics-hub-in-calverton-planned-by-triple-five-affiliate-to-enhance-package-delivery-services-on-long-island/
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/
Civil racketeering lawsuit against Ghermezians
for importing counterfeit and contaminated sanitizer during Covid. https://riverheadlocal.com/2023/06/05/federal-court-green-lights-adding-nader-ghermezian-as-defendant-in-civil-racketeering-lawsuit-over-counterfeit-hand-sanitizer/
“Might Calverton become an Amazon Air
hub in the future? Long Island is a ‘unique difficulty’ for Amazon, researchers
say” https://riverheadlocal.com/2023/05/26/might-calverton-become-an-amazon-air-hub-in-the-future-long-island-is-a-unique-difficulty-for-amazon-researchers-say/
OPINION | EDITORIAL Hey, Triple Five. We get it. Do you? https://riverheadlocal.com/2023/05/07/hey-triple-five-we-get-it-do-you/
Compilation of investigative articles
in Riverhead Local https://riverheadlocal.com/2023/05/01/triple-five-timeline/
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
EPCAL Watch epcalwatch@gmail.com
history compiled by John McAuliff jmcauliff@gmail.com
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