Westchester IDA hears $480M Regeneron proposal
The Westchester Industrial Development Agency heard requests April 22 for tax subsidies for projects that would create a large manufacturing facility on the Regeneron campus, 500 new apartments in White Plains and headquarters for a natural foods business in Mount Vernon.
The IDA took no official actions, but chairwoman Joan McDonald indicated that the projects fit the IDA”™s mission of promoting economic development.
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals wants to build a $480 million facility. The Tarrytown company had proposed a $150 million facility in 2015, attorney Janet Giris told the IDA, but that plan no longer meets the company”™s needs.
Now Regeneron wants to spend an additional $330 million to build and equip a 2-story, 207,000-square- foot preclinical manufacturing and process development facility.
Giris said Regeneron anticipates asking for $7.5 million to $7.7 million in tax incentives, and it might negotiate property tax abatement with the town of Greenburgh.
In White Plains, the developers of the Gateway II project want $29 million in tax breaks.
Gateway II would be built at Lexington and Hamilton avenues, on a parking lot across the street from the Metro-North train station.
The $275 million building would include 500 apartments, 19,000 square feet of ground level retail space, and 755 indoor parking spaces, in perpendicular 25-story and 16-story towers.
The Alaska Permanent Fund Corp. and Greystar Real Estate Partners are the developers.
The White Plains Common Council approved the site plan earlier this month.
Work could begin in June and the project could be completed in three years, according to a memo by IDA economic consultant Michael Grella.
Fifteen of the apartments would be leased as affordable housing, he said, and the developers would pay $3.9 million to the city of White Plains as a buyout for another 25 affordable apartments the city requires.
The project would produce $1.38 in tax benefits for every $1 in foregone taxes, according to an analysis by Camoin Associates.
The developers said they need the tax breaks, according to Grella, because of the high costs of environmental remediation, designing and building the structures, including parking on site and paying for affordable housing.
McDonald commented that she is “highly confident” in what the developers proposed and fully supports the project.
Grella also presented a request by owners of Ace Natural Inc., a distributor of natural and organic foods, for a $63,500 mortgage recording tax exemption on a warehouse and office building on Sandford Boulevard in Mount Vernon.
Ace already leases the building. Vierling Family LLC, the majority owners, want to buy the property and make it Ace”™s permanent headquarters.
The Mount Vernon Industrial Development Agency granted the current owner, Exit 8 Hutch LLC, about $1.8 million in tax subsidies when it bought the building in 2018, to lease to Ace.
Vierling expects to buy the property for $7.2 million and finance $6.35 million of the price. Without the $63,500 mortgage recording tax exemption, Grella said, the company says it would be unable to buy the property and would have to consider locations outside of Mount Vernon or New York state.
Ace would retain 47 jobs and add 12.
“That to me is the mission of the IDA” McDonald said. “I think it”™s a very positive project and a good project to move forward.”