Town of Smithtown

Action By HIA-LI Members Helps Secure Long Island’s Future

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Amid the doldrums of the COVID-19 pandemic, HIA-LI members have good reason to pat themselves on the back this year.

Why? Because our organization’s members played a central role in advocating for a public policy victory that will serve, according to Newsday, as a “building block for our region’s future.”

That victory occurred in August, when the Smithtown Town Board voted unanimously to greenlight a “zoning overlay” allowing mixed-used development at the 1,650-acre Long Island Innovation Park in Hauppauge (LI-IPH), formerly known as Hauppauge Industrial Park. The idea for a “zoning overlay” had arisen from a 160-page strategic analysis issued in April 2019. The analysis, commissioned by HIA-LI in cooperation with the Suffolk IDA and others, had enumerated ways to strengthen the Park’s future.

The Town’s decision came in the aftermath of an organized campaign – undertaken by HIA-LI members and many others – to help educate Board members regarding the merits of the change.

Thanks to new development opportunities made possible through the revised zoning rules­­­, one of Long Island’s most respected real estate developers, TRITEC of East Setauket, stepped forward in November and proposed to build a $125-million, mixed-use building with 335 apartments in the Park. The venue would be a development parcel at 49 Wireless Boulevard that TRITEC owns through a subsidiary. The “zoning overlay” opens the door for similar mixed-use projects at twelve other Park sites.

Long Island municipalities like the Town of Smithtown are recognizing the need to take bold steps to promote regional economic development and to help stem the hemorrhaging of young workers from Nassau and Suffolk. 

The Town – under the leadership of Supervisor Ed Wehrheim – understands that mixed-use development like this represents a “building block” for creating a better tomorrow for our area. Such measures boost our economic competitiveness by supporting workforce attraction and retention. In July 2019, a Rauch Foundation survey conducted for Newsday found that 67 percent of Long Islanders aged 18 to 34 years planned to leave the region within five years.

Can you imagine? Such an exodus would seriously disable the Long Island economy and make it highly difficult for Park employers to hire and keep a skilled workforce.

In a November 29 editorial, Newsday called the new Smithtown policy “a prime example of what’s possible” when Long Island municipalities act creatively to re-envision our region’s future.

So, bravo to the members of HIA-LI for helping to create a new model for fortifying Long Island’s long-term competitiveness.  And a special thanks to our LI-IPH Task Force, headed by HIA-LI Board Chair Joe Campolo, Managing Partner at Campolo, Middleton & McCormick, LLP.

Read the complete Newsday editorial here.

Celebrating Long Island Businesses and Embracing Opportunities

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One of HIA-LI’s primary missions, as most of you know, is to advocate for the growth and sustainability of the Long Island Innovation Park at Hauppauge (LI-IHP), formerly the Hauppauge Industrial Park.

With the Park in mind, I’m pleased to share this upbeat progress report.

Some context: The Park’s enormous economic potential

The HIA-LI cooperated with the Suffolk County Industrial Development Agency, the Regional Plan Association, Stony Brook University, and the Town of Smithtown to produce a 160-page “Economic Impact Study and Opportunity Analysis” that reported on the Park’s remarkable magnitude and impact and set forth a vision for further growth.

With 1,300 companies employing 55,000 people, LI-IPH is, amazingly, America’s second-largest industrial park. Delivering $4 billion in annual payroll and $14 billion in overall economic output, the Park accounts for one in twenty Long Island jobs.

58 percent of park tenants fall into the essential “tradeable” category: their exports and services bring new net dollars into the region. This figure contrasts with only 23 percent Island-wide and 36 percent nationally. LI-IPH’s wisest strategy is to help nurture and build out these competitive tradeable industries.

HIA-LI is advancing strategies for attracting the necessary facilities, amenities, talent pool, and knowledge base for further firm clustering – and we’re working to elevate the Park’s brand as Long Island’s premier hub for growing businesses.

Sign up for upcoming virtual events

To help shine a spotlight on the businesses at the LI-IPH, HIA-LI is hosting several virtual events. During these difficult times, we’ve waived attendance fees for these events:

  • Tradable Sectors and How They Impact the Long Island Economy
    Monday, September 14. 9:00am – 10:30am. Click here to register
  • Long Island Innovation Park at Hauppauge Update: Current and Future Growth
    Tuesday, September 22. 9:00am – 10:30am. Click here to register
  • HIA-LI Business Achievement Awards
    Tuesday, September 29. Networking at 11:00am. Event at 12:00pm. Click here to register
  • HIA-LI Annual Trade Show & Conference
    Wednesday, October 7 and Thursday, October 8. Attendees can click on virtual exhibit booths to schedule live appointments, “walk” the floor, and more.  Click here to register 

Workforce housing is coming to the Park  

To attract a competitive workforce, communities must offer housing for young professionals. To help fulfill the vision set forth in the “Opportunity Analysis” cited above, the Town of Smithtown recently and laudably voted to create a “zoning overlay” district within the Park, allowing for multi-use development, including workforce housing. The Town acted in response to advocacy by HIA-LI and other business and civic interests.

Providing health and safety education for the Park’s workforce 

As you may be aware, many production workers employed in the Park come from communities experiencing high rates of COVID-19. In many instances, workers would benefit by obtaining disease prevention information in their places of work. 

To make this happen, HIA-LI is coordinating with the Suffolk County Department of Labor to introduce workplace-based, COVID-focused health education programming. To learn more, contact: Angela.Ramos@suffolkcountyny.gov

We’re working to help create a workforce training center

In conjunction with the Long Island Regional Planning Council and the Suffolk IDA, HIA-LI is pursuing creation of a regional workforce training center to help businesses at the LI-IPH and elsewhere fill skills gaps among their employees. While the center’s location and syllabus are yet to be determined, its establishment stands to help boost the profitability of LI-IPH firms.

HIA-LI won an international marketing award

A 30-second video promoting the LIIPH has won an internationally recognized Telly Award, which honors achievement in the non-broadcast video industry. Watch the video at www.LI-IPH.org

HIA-LI delivers masks for member businesses

HIA-LI recently teamed up with Governor Andrew Cuomo and Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone to distribute thousands of reusable masks for use by employees of firms at the LI-IPH and elsewhere across Long Island.  

Become a member

If your company isn’t currently an HIA-LI member, we’d love you to join! We offer vital, real-time information to help your business through this recovery – and to let the business community know you’re open for business. Contact Anthony Forgione at (631) 543-5355 or aforgione@hia-li.org to learn more.

During these unprecedented times, it’s more critical than ever to celebrate Long Island business – and to embrace opportunities to help us connect and do business.

Please join us!

Mixed Use is the Best Use

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I hope everyone is staying safe and healthy.

This blog post is an “Action Alert” to members and friends of HIA-LI. There is something very simple that you can do to help secure the long-term future of the Long Island Innovation Park at Hauppauge.

Between now and June 11, the Town of Smithtown is seeking comments on a proposal to create “overlay zoning” that would permit mixed-use development in a portion of the Park. Approval of this plan is essential to the success of our Park. But it has encountered resistance from some local residents.

So we’re calling upon businesses and citizens to send an email to members of the Smithtown Town Council favoring the change. While messages from Town residents and businesses are best, anyone can comment.

You must send your email by June 11 to be made a part of the public record. Council members’ email addresses appear below.

You can mention all or some of these points:

  • The change would provide young professionals with the opportunity to enjoy the Park for living, working, and recreation.
  • A study by Suffolk County IDA and the Regional Plan Association found an urgent need on Long Island for housing for young professionals. It’s key to attracting and retaining a talented and competitive workforce.
  • A survey of the Park’s business owners found that a number-one concern is attracting and retaining a skilled workforce.
  • A survey showed that 68 percent of our area’s young people are contemplating leaving this area within the next five years. They’d leave behind an aging population incapable of filling local jobs.
  • Rental units are sorely needed on Long Island. The Nassau-Suffolk rental housing market represents just 21 percent of households, compared to nearby suburban regions such as Westchester (35 percent) and Northern New Jersey (37 percent).
  • In the Town of Smithtown, the situation is further exacerbated – only 6.7 percent of households are renter-occupied.
  • The Park’s success is vital to the community’s future. The Park delivers $19.6 million in assessed value to the Town, and provides more than $44 million to the Hauppauge School District. New tax revenue would fully offset any added demands for local services.
  • Some claim the development would burden local schools. That’s inaccurate: it would generate no more than 90 students over a decade. Yet the district lost 110 students within this past year alone.
  • That’s because the apartments would mostly be studio and one-bedroom units geared to singles or couples without children.
  • Added traffic would be sustainable, with only a moderate increase on weekends
  • We urge you to approve an overlay district to allow creation of mixed-use development within the Innovation Park

To help us keep track of support for this zone change, it would be very helpful if you would send a copy of any emails to me at talessi@hia-li.org.

This is important initiative, so please take action today. Thank you!

Please send messages to:
Hon. Ed Wehrheim, Smithtown Supervisor, supervisor@smithtownny.gov
Hon. Tom McCarthy, Smithtown Deputy Supervisor, tmccarthy@smithtownny.gov
Hon. Lynne Nowick, Smithtown Councilperson, lnowick@smithtownny.gov
Hon. Lisa Inzerillo, Smithtown Councilperson, linzerillo@smithtownny.gov
Hon. Tom Lohmann, Snithtown Councilperson, twlohmann@smithtownny.gov