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New Jersey company picks Calverton over Westhampton

PAUL SQUIRE PHOTO | Allied Building Supply is looking to move to land in an industrial subdivision owned by 1998 Peconic LLC, a group headed by Paul Elliot of Miller Place and Jim Miller of Southold. The property is just south of the Cinco de Mayo restaurant on Route 25.
PAUL SQUIRE PHOTO | Allied Building Supply is looking to move to land in an industrial subdivision owned by 1998 Peconic LLC, just south of the Cinco de Mayo restaurant on Route 25.

Allied Building Products, whose representatives last month told the Riverhead Industrial Development Agency that the New Jersey company was torn between Calverton and Westhampton as the site for its first East End location, appears to have chosen Calverton.

Paul Elliott, part owner of 1998 Peconic LLC, said in an interview this week that Allied has signed a lease with that company. The lease is conditioned on the company’s receiving IDA tax incentives.

The incentives for which Allied and 1998 Peconic would qualify include sales tax abatements on the cost of building supplies, mortgage tax abatements and a property tax abatement on the value of improvements to the property that starts at 50 percent and decreases five percent per year over 10 years. The value of the land would not be subject to the abatement.

IDA members told Allied representatives July 8 that the board could not grant any abatement without a signed lease for the Calverton property. The next IDA meeting is Monday, Aug. 5, at 5 p.m.

Mr. Elliot, of Soundview Realty Group, owns 1998 Peconic LLC with Jim Miller of Miller Environmental Group Inc. 1998 Peconic has proposed building a 16,700-square-foot industrial facility on property on the east side of Edwards Avenue, north of Miller Environmental and south of Cinco de Mayo restaurant.

The Riverhead Planning Board is also scheduled to vote on a resolution Thursday night to approve the proposed commercial building, showroom and sales office that will be constructed for Allied Building Products, according to the Planning Board agenda. The building would be on a new road called Miller Way.

David Doran, Allied’s regional manager for New York, told the IDA on July 8 the company was considering either the Edwards Avenue site or a site in Westhampton near Gabreski Airport.

“Right now, we just want to see what our options are,” he said at the time.

The company will ultimately need 30,000 square feet but has an option to expand at the Edwards Avenue site, he said.

Allied Building Products is a family-owned building supply company that was started in Jersey City in 1950 and now has more than 180 locations across the country and over 3,100 employees, according to its website.

Allied would have six or seven employees at the Calverton site in the first year and “ramp it up quickly after that,” said Mr. Doran said. The company pays a “living wage” of more than $20 per hour, he told the IDA board last month.

He had also told the IDA that tax abatements were being offered at the Westhampton site as well, although it was unclear who was offering them. The Suffolk County IDA said it was not working with Allied Building Products, and Southampton Town doesn’t have an IDA.

Mr. Doran could not be reached for comment this week.

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