Suffolk IDA Seeks Comments on Enclaves Tax Break Plan in Southold

The Suffolk County Industrial Development Agency is accepting public comments on a tentatively approved $2.7 million tax break that developer Jonathan Tibett is seeking to help mitigate rising costs of the project since it was initially proposed nearly a decade ago.

“Discounted, or entirely lost, among all the press and statements from the local opposition is the fact that the project will generate far more tax revenue, both sales tax and real estate tax, than is lost by granting the benefits,” states a draft letter that Tibetts asked business associates on December 22 to replicate and email to the Suffolk IDA via info@suffolkida.org. “Who can doubt that the added overnight visitors will have a significant spillover benefit for the local farmstands, wineries, restaurants and other businesses, along with all that added sales tax?”

The Suffolk IDA had tentatively approved the tax breaks for an upscale, 40-room hotel that is to include a 74-seat restaurant, indoor and outdoor swimming pools and a spa and four detached cottages. It is to be built by the developer, Enclave Southold LLC, at the former Hedges bed-and-breakfast inn on Main Street, a building town historian Amy Folk says dates back to 1858.

While the IDA has signaled support, some local residents and officials have expressed concern that the scale of the project would be out of character for the rural region and worry it will fuel overcrowding.

The deadline to submit letters to the IDA is January 16 before the panel votes on the proposal.

-With Taylor K. Vecsey