The Nassau County Industrial Development Agency on March 1 granted tax breaks to incentivize the construction of a Honda service center on West Merrick Road.
Honda of Valley Stream, a 30-year-old, family-owned car dealership applied for IDA assistance that would enable it to build a $7.5 million state-of-the-art service and repair facility on two vacant lots at 364-370 and 396 W. Merrick Road.
The plan will phase in a $104,000 property tax increase — from about $263,000 to $367,000 — over 12 years in the form of a payment in lieu of taxes, or PILOT.
The dealership’s owner, Sollecito Realty Co. LLC, also received a sales tax exemption capped at $301,875 and a mortgage-recording tax abatement of $67,200 from the Nassau IDA.
Daniel Baker, an attorney for the dealership, said that he had consulted with Village of Valley Stream officials, and that they welcomed the project.
Mayor Ed Fare said he thought keeping the business in Valley Stream would benefit the community, and didn’t see any detrimental effects to granting this PILOT.
“With any PILOT, as long as no one gets hurt, we’re in favor of it,” said Fare, who added, “It’s really hard for me to find a negative on this one.”
The Nassau IDA collected testimony on Feb. 15 at Village Hall to inform its decision whether or not to grant the application.
Representatives from the Valley Stream school districts — who have spent the past several months dealing with a tax controversy caused in part by a PILOT granted to the Green Acres Mall by the Hempstead Town IDA — were not in favor of granting PILOTs until the state’s education law governing the Central High School District could be looked at. That agreement shrunk the mall’s tax payments by about $6.5 million beginning in October.
