By a vote of 4 to 0, Rockland County’s Industrial Development Agency (IDA) has voted to terminate the financial incentives it gave to Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc., and its entity Rock County Holdings LLC when Regeneron was planning to open up a biotech research and development lab in the county.
Tarrytown-based Regeneron had purchased the former Avon Products site at 1 Avon Place in Suffern with plans to create a biotech research and developmental laboratory facility with administrative offices. It estimated the total cost of the property acquisition and redevelopment as $138 million. Early last month it announced it will not be moving ahead with the project and put the property on the market.
Regeneron had sought and received financial incentives for the project from the Rockland IDA largely based on the financial benefits it would bring to the county including new tax revenues and employment opportunities.
The IDA provided financial assistance in the form of an exemption from sales tax in connection with the project in the amount of up to $4,187,500 for qualified expenditures of up to $50,000,000. In addition, the IDA, Regeneron, Rock County Holdings LLC, the Town of Ramapo, the Village of Suffern, the Suffern Central School District and the County of Rockland entered into a PILOT (payment in lieu of taxes) agreement dated as of Feb. 29, 2024, for an exemption from real property taxes for the Avon Place property for a 15-year period.
The IDA said that the failure to proceed with the project constitutes a failure to comply with the terms of the agreements that had been closed upon with Regeneron on Dec. 1, 2023. The termination resolution that the IDA adopted authorizes the agency’s general counsel, executive director or other authorized representative to take whatever action is necessary including litigation to recapture any IDA benefits Regeneron has already received.
