AVR Realty breaks ground for 150-unit Homewood Suites Hotel in Carle Place

With the rumbling of bulldozers and front loaders in the background, Nassau County executive Edward Mangano, joined by AVR Realty chief executive Allan Rose and others, broke ground for a150-unit Homewood Suites Hotel. "That noise you hear behind me is creating 70 new jobs," Mangano told reporters and others at the site, noting that private job creation in the county is a top goal of his administration. "In Nassau County you don't see the cranes and bulldozers working." Mangano noted that since 2006, Nassau County has received $10 million in economic contributions from tourism. "There's no better money for Nassau County than the money tourists spend here," Mangano said, adding that hotel stays in the county have increased over the last year. The project, aided by a package of tax incentives from the Nassau County Industrial Development Agency, will replace an undeveloped automobile storage yard. creating new jobs that will generate $15 million for the county's economy. "I'm pleased the Nassau County Industrial Development Agency, the Nassau County Economic Development Office and my office were able to assist this company," the county executive said. Rose, noting that he opened his first hotel in Long island in 1966, a Howard Johnson's in Westbury, said he appreciated the assistance from the county. "In today's times it's almost impossible to get financing," he said. "This could not have happened without the IDA and the benefits they provided." Construction of the hotel will take about 15 months and it is expected to generate 70 full-time equivalent construction jobs over that time. Tritec Construction is building the hotel for AVR. Once completed, the Homewood Suites Hotel would bring 39 new, permanent full-time equivalent jobs to Nassau County and also will create a new source of hotel/motel tax revenue. The IDA provided AVR with a property tax PILOT (Payment in Lieu of Taxes) program, a mortgage recording tax exemption and a sales tax exemption for purchases of equipment and furnishings for the new hotel." "This property has been undeveloped for several years and without the IDA's assistance there is no indication that there would be any redevelopment of the property in the near future," said Jeffrey Seltzer, chairman of the IDA. This project will eliminate a long-time eyesore in the community and at the same time fulfill unmet demand in the region for extended stay hotel rooms," said Joseph Kearney, executive director of the IDA The site, once housed the Nassau County board of cooperative education and before that was the site of an E.J. Korvette department store. Shown (from left) are: Paul O'Brien, special counsel for the Nassau County IDA; Michael Sahn, of Sahn Ward Coschignano & Baker, attorney for AVR-Carle Place Associates; Steven Eickelbeck, AVR's director of construction management; Nassau County executive Edward Mangano, Allan Rose, owner and chief executive of AVR Realty, and James Coughlin, partner of Tritec Construction.