The Westchester County Industrial Development Agency granted preliminary approval today for $641,583 in tax breaks to a school bus business that wants to move operations from Elmsford to the former Taconic Kia car dealership in Yorktown.
Without the tax breaks, Bird Bus Sales & Service states in its application for governmental financial assistance, “the project is not economically possible.”
Bird”™s landlord at 1 Warehouse Lane in Elmsford is not renewing the lease, IDA economic consultant Michael Grella told the board, so the school bus business must find another location. It could consolidate operations to its headquarters in Plainview, Nassau County, he said, or relocate to an adjacent county.
Bird takes its name after Blue Bird Corp., a well-known school bus manufacturer in Georgia, but it also sells other brands and types of buses.
Bird is proposing a $6.5 million project that will renovate the abandoned Taconic Kia dealership at 3805 Crompond Road, U.S. Route 202.
It is asking for a $52,000 mortgage recording tax exemption, $117,770 sales and use tax exemption during construction, and $471,813 property tax abatement over 15 years.
The IDA board noted that the proposal presents a low benefits-to-cost ratio of 0.29. That is, for every dollar in foregone tax revenue, the project is expected to create 29-cents in tax benefits.
The calculation is based only on the county”™s foregone and new taxes, and it uses an estimated present value of $192,806 for 15 years of property tax abatement.
By this measure, the county will give up $86,161 of its portion of tax breaks and get back $25,107. The IDA”™s analysis does not include the financial impact on Yorktown or Yorktown Central School District.
The project will also create 11 fulltime equivalent construction jobs and retain eight jobs now in Elmsford.
Bird president Robert Reichenbach told the board that more jobs could be created as the company shifts its sales portfolio to an entirely electric fleet requiring skilled technicians and engineers.
He said the Yorktown business would not create much traffic because nearly all sales would be made off-site and buses would be delivered to customers.
The 2.71-acre property is owned by Crompond Realty, which is owned by Drew Picon, of Livingston, New Jersey. Picon terminated the Taconic Kia franchise in 2018, three years after it opened, according to court documents in a 2019 lawsuit filed by Hyundai Capital against Picon Auto.
Bird has a contract to buy the property, according to its IDA financial assistance application, and it estimated the acquisition costs at $3.11 million.
The project entails renovations of a 16,000-square-foot structure that will be used as a warehouse and for offices. The site will accommodate storage of 48 buses.
Bird hopes to start work this month, according to the IDA application, begin occupying the site in November and finish the project by February.
The IDA will hold a public hearing on the proposed financial assistance, before taking a final vote.
