Offer made for EPCAL polo complex
“It’s a low-ball offer in a bad economy. I don’t expect any action to be taken on it,” Supervisor Sean Walter said of a $37.5 million offer by an Argentina-based group to buy 755 acres at the Enterprise Park at Calverton in order to build a polo complex.
Jorge Neuss and his son, German, made a presentation on the polo plan earlier this year, but it didn’t include a proposed purchase price. Town officials received the price being offered this week.
The $37.5 million is far less than the $155 million previously offered by Riverhead Resorts for the same 755 acres, although Riverhead Resorts was never able to close the deal and the town terminated the contract earlier this year. Mr. Walter said he would refer the offer to Vanasse Hangen Brustlin, the company the town has hired to study the zoning at EPCAL. Mr. Walter called the Neuss plan “a housing proposal disguised as polo fields. This is nowhere near anything the town is interested in.”
He said “300 houses is not an economic generator,” which is what EPCAL, the site of a former Grumman fighter jet plant that was deeded to the town by the U.S. Navy, was meant to be.
German Neuss said in an interview that the proposal, which calls for the site to be used for international polo events, is not yet firm and is subject to further changes, but he expects it to become firm within a week or so. He declined to discuss the specifics of the proposal before it is finalized.
