Westbury apartment project scores 20-year tax break

Terwilliger & Bartone looking to bring 72 units to downtown

Westbury apartment project scores 20-year tax break
Terwilliger & Bartone managing partner Anthony Bartone and 461 Railroad Avenue in Westbury (Google Maps, Terwilliger & Bartone, iStock)

A 72-unit apartment building proposed for downtown Westbury is one step closer to reality for the developer, which secured a 20-year tax break from Nassau County.

The county’s Industrial Development Agency granted several breaks to Farmingdale-based Terwilliger & Bartone Properties, according to Newsday. The tax subsidies are linked to a proposed $23 million project at 461 Railroad Avenue, the site of a produce warehouse.

Under the IDA’s arrangement, the developer will pay slightly more than $100,000 in taxes in the next two years, the warehouse’s current rate. For the subsequent 20 years, the developer will pay $9.4 million as part of a payment in lieu of taxes agreement.

The developer is also receiving about $818,000 in tax breaks for construction materials and at least $137,000 off its mortgage recording tax, the developer’s attorney told Newsday.

Once completed, the apartment building will include studio, one-bedroom and two-bedroom apartments. Ten of the units, or just under 14 percent of them, will be listed below market rate, the developer said.

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There is still plenty of work to be done ahead of that goal, however. The developer doesn’t yet own the property it wishes to build on, though it hopes to close on it by the end of this year. If that happens, it can be demolished in January and 18 months of construction can begin in February or March.

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The downtown area near the Long Island Rail Road station was rezoned in 2019 to allow for buildings that were higher or more dense.

The project isn’t the developer’s only one in Westbury. Down the street, Terwilliger & Bartone is working on a 58-unit project at 425 Railroad Avenue, for which it plans to submit a formal application in the coming days, according to Newsday.

[Newsday] — Holden Walter-Warner