[CPEO-BIF] (NY) White Plains BF project gets $110 million tax break

[bobh@np.craigslist.org]

Cappelli project in White Plains gets $110.3M tax break
By JAY GALLAGHER
Lower Hudson Online

ALBANY - The $500 million hotel, office and residential project being built by
developer Louis Cappelli in downtown White Plains is getting a $110.3 million tax
break, according to state records.

The project, which will include a Ritz-Carlton Hotel, is eligible for the break
because it is on the site of a former gas station where gasoline and oil had leaked
and polluted the parcel. The state has offered the breaks since 2003 in an effort
to spur the cleanup and reuse of such polluted brownfields sites.

But environmentalists and Gov. Eliot Spitzer say the program has gotten out of hand
- in fact, the state is on the hook for more than $1 billion in breaks - more than
six times what was budgeted for them this year.

It also irks environmentalists that just four projects - the Cappelli development
plus three in New York City - alone are getting $574 million in credits.

"These tax credits are costing the state hundreds of millions of dollars, and in
many cases are going to developers of projects that don't require any added
incentives," Tim Sweeney of Environmental Advocates of New York said yesterday.

For the entire article, see:
http://www.nynews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070712/NEWS02/707120368

Bob Hersh
CPEO

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