Village, AvalonBay reach agreement

At the Village Board of Trustees meeting on March 2, Mayor Mary Bossart announced that the village had reached a formal agreement with developer AvalonBay, securing more money for the village than it would have received from PILOT payments alone.

AvalonBay currently has an application pending with the Town of Hempstead Industrial Development Agency (IDA) which, if accepted by the IDA, would have the developer make Payments in Lieu of Taxes (PILOTs). The PILOT that AvalonBay would pay to Rockville Centre would be less than what the property taxes on the planned 349-unit Banks Avenue apartment complex would be.

The agreement, coined the "Village Services Assistance Payment "(VSAP), says that AvalonBay will instead pay Rockville Centre the full amount of what the property taxes on its proposed apartment complex

would be.

The payment would be phased in over the three years of the development of the AvalonBay complex. In the fourth year—the first full year of the agreement—AvalonBay would pay the village an estimated $208,000, according to Village Administrator Frank Quigley. With the PILOT payments to the village, the village would be paid the full amount of the property taxes—an estimated $260,000.

“The schedule is a little subjective because it depends on what’s happening in four years,” Quigley said. “This is what we anticipate. It’s dependent on things that nobody knows about, so you can’t say it’s going to definitely be that number.”

The agreement was first announced by Bossart last month, and finalized at the latest board meeting.

“AvalonBay understood our concerns and worked very hard to make sure the village was made whole in this,” said Bossart. “I’m sure they’re going to be very good corporate citizens.”

“This obviously involves additional costs to AvalonBay which is not beneficial, but we have been working hard to do everything we can on our end to get this great development moving,” said Matthew Whalen, AvalonBay vice president in an earlier e-mail to the Herald. “The agreement involved major compromise on AvalonBay’s part, but we are pleased to have reached an agreement.”

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