The Suffolk County Industrial Development Agency held a public hearing Monday on proposed sales, use and property tax breaks for Silver Fox of Northport LLC's planned 72,000-square-foot assisted living facility in East Northport.
The project would convert a 6.12-acre parcel at 1381-1387 Pulaski Road into an 86-unit assisted living and memory care facility, with financial assistance limited to sales and use tax exemptions and a real property tax abatement, or PILOT, under the agency's uniform tax exemption policy.
A resident, Denise Schwartz, told the board the exemptions would primarily benefit wealthy investors rather than the community. "Any exemptions from sales and use tax or property taxes we are giving here are really being given to a multi-billionaire who will never step foot in the facility," she said, citing strain on the town's tax cap, the school district's tax levy increase, and the project's sole-source aquifer and wastewater impacts.
Another speaker at the hearing raised similar objections, saying there was a potential tax increase of about 18% and that the facility's benefits would not offset costs to taxpayers. "Certainly we should not be given billionaires tax breaks," he said.
Dave Moyer, superintendent of the Northport-East Northport school district, said the district was "deeply concerned" by what he called a compressed review period, noting the public notice arrived just four business days before the hearing. He said the district could see a 9.5% increase in tax bills tied to this and related PILOTs despite cutting its own levy 0.54% this year, and that a records request for project documents remained outstanding.
Moyer said the proposed abatement appeared larger than one the agency approved for the same property in 2022, which he described as a 50% abatement declining 5% per year over 10 years, and asked the agency to extend the Oct. 21 deadline for written comments.
David Perry, an attorney representing Silver Fox of Northport, said the project would bring more than 50 full-time jobs and over 500 construction jobs at prevailing wage, and said a portfolio managed by Michael Dell would be only one of several investors in a group purchasing Sunrise Senior Living, not the property's owner. "Michael Dell is not on this project," he said, adding that Sunrise's own senior management would hold a significant ownership stake.