19-03-2025
IDA approves controversial Vestal luxury housing PILOT
TOWN OF DICKINSON, NY (WIVT/WBGH) – The Broome County IDA voted on, and passed a PILOT program today, to transform the Quality Inn Suites on the Vestal Parkway into luxury housing.
The estimated $70 million housing project on the parkway would create around 200 units of high-end apartments with rent starting at $1,800.
The IDA has received push back from Vestal town officials and residents, on the PILOT program's tax exemption policy.
The PILOT program would freeze the developer's taxes for two years, and then gradually raise them over the next twenty years.
Town supervisor Maria Sexton says the Vestal town board initially approved the project before the PILOT program was ever mentioned.
She says the town has never had to offer tax breaks for businesses to locate on the Parkway as it's the most desirable real estate in the area.
'All of our other businesses pay their taxes. They pay their fair share of taxes. It's not fair to them, it's not fair to our residents who pay their taxes. And, any new development, if it brings more revenue in, helps our residents, helps our other businesses, and when they get this huge tax abatement from outside parties, then we don't get that benefit,' says Sexton.
The developer for the project is Aptitude Acquisition of New Jersey.
Sexton says they plan to break ground this summer, and construction should be completed in 2027.
The executive director of The Agency, Stacey Duncan, says the tax abatement will lead to more revenue down the line, including over $1 million to the Town of Vestal, $3 million to the county, and close to $11 million to the Vestal School District.
But I know they are at a higher value. Which is proven. We have a number of units, 50 Front Street in the City of Binghamton, Victory Lofts in The Village of Johnson City, that are comparable rents that are at full occupancy. And I know some have waiting lists. We think that its going to continue to provide inventory, which we need,' says Duncan.
Duncan says the apartments will primarily be single bedrooms, but some will have two, three, or even four bedrooms.
She expects crews to break ground sometime in June.
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