Special meeting scheduled for Thursday morning as Town Board to vote on revised CAT deal

The Riverhead Town Board will hold a special meeting Thursday to vote on two resolutions dealing with the proposed sale of 1,643 acres at the Enterprise Park at Calverton for $40 million. The meeting is 9:30 a.m. at Town Hall, prior to the regular work session.

The resolutions — one as the Town Board and another as the town’s Community Development Agency — aim to break the stalemate the town has faced in trying to get state Department of Environmental Conservation approval for an eight-lot subdivision, of which three lots would be sold to Calverton Aviation & Technology.

CAT is 75% owned by Triple Five Group, a company best known for building shopping malls and entertainment centers. It has said it intends to build for aviation and technology uses at EPCAL.

The proposal to be considered Thursday calls for a joint application with CAT, the town, and the Riverhead Industrial Development Agency, in which the town would transfer all of the land it owns at EPCAL — about 2,100 acres — to the IDA.

Under what’s known as a “lease and project” agreement between the town and CAT, the 1,643 acres would be leased to CAT until a sale can be finalized.

The agreement between the town and CAT would be consistent with the terms of the Nov. 18, 2018 agreement between the town and CAT that was approved in a 3-2 vote by the Town Board, but has yet to close.

The 2018 agreement requires CAT to spend and complete no less than $1 million on infrastructure improvements within two years of taking the property, and to build at least one million square feet of construction, to be completed within five years from the date of approval.

CAT has also agreed to provide lighting to the EPCAL ball fields so they can be used at night. That part of the agreement didn’t give a specific cost.

While Supervisor Yvette Aguiar and other board members have criticized the 2018 contract with CAT, Ms. Aguiar said in a press release: “Riverhead is in a ‘binding contract’ with CAT, and cannot outright cancel the contract, as some critics have suggested, without ending up in a lengthy litigation process.”

Officials say CAT had provided the town with a letter of agreement to the proposal, which was first made public at a Feb. 10 work session.