Subsidy Alert: January 2011

This month's subsidy alert features ACA Quality Building Products, News America Publishing Incorporated, Dasny Mechanical Inc, and Kingsland 310 Realty. To learn how the Board of Directors voted on these projects, see the agency "board books" here.  

Also included are notice of two upcoming public hearings regarding development projects: one is the newly proposed Four Sparrows Marsh Retail Center, to be located at Mill Basin, in Brooklyn; the other is the Webster Avenue Rezoning, in the Bedford Park and Norwood sections of the Bronx. While these are not IDA projects, they are economic development projects in communities of interest to many of our readers.

Office of Deputy Mayor for Economic Development Public Scoping Meeting Alert

A Public Scoping Meeting will be held on Tuesday, January 11, 2011 at 7:00 PM at the King’s Plaza Community Room, 5100 King’s Plaza (at the intersection of Flatbush Avenue and Avenue U), Brooklyn, New York. The meeting will provide an opportunity for the public to comment on the draft scope of work for the Four Sparrows Marsh Retail Center, a proposed 15-acre retail center with 248,000 square feet of new commercial uses as well as some newly mapped parkland. Public comments raised in the scoping meeting will be incorporated into the Environmental Impact Statement.  Written comments on the Draft Scope of Work will be accepted until 5:00 PM on Friday, January 21, 2011. Read the public hearing notice and download the Draft Scope of Work and other related project materials from the Mayor’s Office of Environmental Coordination website.

Department of City Planning Public Hearing Alert

A public hearing on the Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the proposed Webster Avenue rezoning project will be held on Wednesday, January 5, 2011 at 10 AM at 22 Reade Street, New York, NY 10007. Comments are requested on the DEIS and will be accepted until Tuesday, January 18^th, 2011. The proposed project rezones 80 blocks in the Bedford Hill and Norwood sections of the Bronx for the purpose of bolstering this residential and commercial corridor. You can download the EIS and find related materials and information on the rezoning at the Department of City Planning website.

IDA Subsidy Alert

Public Notice for the January 6, 2011 NYCIDA Public Hearing. 

The New York City Industrial Development Agency’s January 2011 public hearing will take place on Thursday, January 6, 2011, at 10:00 am at 110 William Street, Manhattan. Thanks to increased transparency measures being phased in at the IDA, all current project applications and cost/benefit analyses will be made available to the public 12 calendar days before the hearing. For the January hearing, copies of project materials will be posted on the website of the New York City Economic Development Corporation at www.nycedc.com, around December 24, understanding that the holiday, as well as the phase-in of the new transparency measures could cause some delay. If you need a hard copy of the materials or plan to make a statement at the hearing, please contact Frances Tufano at ftufano@nycedc.com or call 212-312-3598.

Companies are often pulled from the docket at the last moment, so you may also want to call to confirm that the company you are interested in will be presented. Written testimony can be sent to Ms. Frances Tufano at the New York City Industrial Development Agency, 110 William Street, 5th Floor, New York , NY 10038.  If you plan to speak on any of these projects, please let GJNY know: 212.721.7996 or bettina (a) goodjobsny.org.

Please take a moment to look over the project summaries below. We encourage anyone with concerns or comments about these proposals to participate in the January 2011 hearings.

Summary of this month’s proposals

This month’s hearing will cover proposals to allocate benefits through the Industrial Incentive Program for three companies: a building supply manufacturer, an industrial fabricator of HVAC components, and a Real Estate Holding Company. The hearing will also provide a review of financial assistance to News America Publishing Incorporated, authorized in 1996 through the IDA’s Commercial Growth program.

IDA PROJECTS

Bronx

Straight lease (Industrial Incentive Program) transaction for the benefit of a to-be-formed entity on behalf of ACA Quality Building Products, LLC, a building supply manufacturer, in connection with the acquisition, renovation, equipping and/or furnishing of an approximately 75,100 square foot facility located on an approximately 58,000 square foot parcel of land located at 850 East 138th Street, Bronx, NY 10454. The financial assistance proposed to be conferred by the Agency will consist of payments in lieu of City real property taxes, exemption from City and State mortgage recording taxes and exemption from City and State sales and use taxes.

Manhattan

Straight Lease (commercial growth) transaction for the benefit of News America Publishing Incorporated and its eligible affiliates in connection with the renovation of office space and the acquisition and/or leasing and installation of machinery, equipment, furniture, fixtures and other tangible personal property in the building located at 1185 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10036, comprised of approximately 82,500 square feet on the 22nd, 23rd and 24th floors. The financial assistance proposed to be conferred by the Agency at the above locations will consist of exemption from City and State sales and use taxes. The financial assistance for this project was induced and authorized on June 16, 1996 and December 12, 1996 respectively. No new financial assistance is being provided.

Queens

Straight lease (Industrial Incentive Program) transaction for the benefit of JRK Holdings LLC, on behalf of Dasny Mechanical Inc., a fabricator of HVAC components, in connection with the acquisition, renovation, equipping and/or furnishing of an approximately 35,000 square foot facility located on an approximately 37,500 square foot parcel of land located at 112-20 14th Avenue, Queens, New York 11356. The financial assistance proposed to be conferred by the Agency will consist of payments in lieu of City real property taxes, exemption from City and State mortgage recording taxes and exemption from City and State sales and use taxes.

Straight lease (Industrial Incentive Program) transaction for the benefit of Kingsland 310 Realty Corp, a real estate holding company, on behalf of (i) Micarole Enterprises Corp d/b/a Kingsland Food, a food distributor; (ii) Maxsun Corporation, a manufacturer and distributor of custom furniture; and/or (iii) Master Packaging Corp., a distributor of packaging materials, in connection with the acquisition, renovation, equipping and/or furnishing of an approximately 60,000 square foot facility located on an approximately 89,000 square foot parcel of land located at 57-09 49th Street, Queens, New York 11378. The financial assistance proposed to be conferred by the Agency will consist of payments in lieu of City real property taxes, exemption from City and State mortgage recording taxes and exemption from City and State sales and use taxes.