Pound Ridge grocery gets county IDA assist for renovations

A northern Westchester supermarket”™s planned $2.5 million renovation project will be aided by an estimated $130,000 in sales tax exemptions for project purchases approved on Thursday by Westchester County Industrial Development Agency directors.

The county IDA”™s board-sharing adjunct agency, the county Local Development Corp., on Thursday agreed to refinance a $3.6 million bond for Guiding Eyes for the Blind that will save the Yorktown Heights nonprofit roughly $120,000 annually in interest payments, according to a spokesman for County Executive Robert P. Astorino.

In Pound Ridge, the town”™s largest employer, Scott”™s Corner Market, will remodel 30,000 square feet of space and add energy-efficient upgrades at the 55 Westchester Ave. store it has occupied since 1979. The 62-year-old grocery business will immediate create 10 jobs, with help from its estimated $130,000 savings in sales taxes, according to Astorino”™s office. Scott”™s Corner currently has 75 full-time and part-time employees.

“That”™s a lot of money for a small business,” Billy J. Fortin, president of Scott’s Corner Market, said of the sales tax exemption.

Guiding Eyes for the Blind is refinancing a $3.6 million borrowing in 2004 for renovations to its Yorktown Heights Training Center. The expected $120,000 to $130,000 in annual interest savings for the life of the LDC-backed bond will help cover the expense of training three service dogs, at roughly $45,000 each, said Phillipe Cotennec, vice president for Guiding Eyes for the Blind, in a county press release.