A planned $99 million, 153,062-square-foot warehouse to be built at 211 Saw Mill River Road in Hawthorne has been approved for approximately $3.8 million in sales tax exemptions by the Mount Pleasant Industrial Development Agency (IDA).
The developer, USRE Hawthorne LLC of Delaware, did not request a PILOT agreement (payment in lieu of taxes) to save on property taxes, nor were mortgage recording tax exemptions sought. It had been before Mount Pleasant town officials seeking site plan approval, a process that involved submitting environmental and traffic studies.
The developer said the project is expected to create 100 full-time and part-time jobs. The site covers 10.475 acres and will provide room for 181 passenger car parking spaces, 597 van parking spaces, 12 truck loading spaces and 62 van loading spaces at grade.
The building”™s interior would have 136,214 square feet of warehouse space and 16,848 square feet of office space.
Town Supervisor Carl Fulgenzi, who serves as the local IDA”™s chairman, noted that the facility will be paying full property taxes estimated to be more than $1.5 million annually.
When the IDA held a public hearing on the sales tax exemption, Hawthorne resident James Russell was critical of the additional truck traffic that would be coming into the area and questioned whether adequate environmental and traffic studies had been done.
Tim Weber of construction manager Acquest Development said that traffic studies and an environmental review in accordance with State Environmental Quality Review Act requirements had been performed. He said that the developer is seeking approval from the state Department of Transportation to install a traffic signal on Route 9A at Belmont Road and would like to add a left turning lane from the south that would serve the proposed warehouse along with an existing building.
The IDA held out the possibility of providing mortgage recording tax exemptions or other incentives in the future.
