Westchester IDA approves POP Displays USA move from Yonkers to Rye Brook
Westchester County has granted POP Displays USA preliminary approval for financial assistance to move its headquarters and 53 jobs from Yonkers to Rye Brook.
POP Displays USA said it will abandon its facility at 555 Tuckahoe Road, where, as of last month, according to the city, it employed 538.
The Westchester Industrial Development Agency approved POP Displays’ request on Feb. 14 for a $275,000 sales tax exemption for renovating and furnishing offices in Rye Brook. The agency would also assume control of the property at 1 International Drive and lease it back to the company for 10 years.
The Yonkers property is owned by Tuckahoe Owners LLC and is part of the Alfred Weissman Real Estate portfolio.
The Rye Brook property was part of SL Green”™s Reckson Executive Park, purchased last year by George Comfort & Sons.
“Given the high occupancy cost associated with its current location as well as other factors,” POP Displays states in its application for financial assistance, “the company has recently determined that it will exit the lease of 555 Tuckahoe Road and relocate manufacturing and distribution operations to the Southeast.”
Christina Gilmartin, spokeswoman for the city of Yonkers, said most of the employees were seasonal workers and were not necessarily from Yonkers.
“It didn”™t make fiscal sense for the city to contribute to a company to stay in Yonkers,” she said, “when we could not see a direct benefit to our constituents.”
POP”™s Jan. 15 application for county assistance states that it has been analyzing options in the tristate area for a new headquarters for two years.
The POP in its name stands for point-of-purchase, and the displays are the plastic, wood, or cardboard units that showcase products such as Revlon and L”™Oreal cosmetics in drug stores.
The company is owned by CounterPoint Capital Partners of Los Angeles.
POP Displays said it would spend about $4.5 million on the new headquarters, including nearly $2 million in renovations of the 25,000-square-foot space and $2.5 million to furnish and equip it.
The work would create an estimated seven to 10 construction jobs. The headquarters would include executive offices, finance, human resources, sales, design and engineering, administrative support and a model shop.
Payroll would total more than $6.5 million a year, or an average of $123,709 per job, ranging from $79,263 for office support positions to $275,495 for sales positions. Rent will cost $637,373 in the first year.
The company will retain 53 jobs from the Yonkers operations, “to maximize retention of existing employees and to provide good access to customers in the greater NYC region.”
POP hopes to occupy its new headquarters by July.
The county IDA must hold a public hearing on the proposed financial assistance, before granting final approval.