PRESS RELEASE: The plan to create an upscale mall on the Cerro Wire site goes to Court

Released: 01/01/02

From: The Mall at Oyster Bay
201 North Service Road
Melville, New York 11747
631 549-2000 / Morton Weber
for immediate release

The plan to create an upscale mall on the Cerro Wire site goes to Court

The next chapter will end pandering and base land use on the law

Morton Weber and Associates, the attorneys representing The Taubman Company, and its affiliate Oyster Bay Associates Limited Partnership, which seeks to create an upscale retail mall on the old Cerro Wire site in Syosset, today announced that the developer has filed suit in State Supreme Court, Riverhead, following the rejection of its client's project by the Town of Oyster Bay.

"We are constrained to file this lawsuit because the Town Board ignored its own zoning laws which clearly provide that our client's project is an appropriate and permitted use of this abandoned 39 acre industrial property," stated John Harras of Morton Weber & Associates. "Unfortunately, the Town Board chose to pander to a small group of residents who, with the assistance of competing mall owners, opposed the project. Fortunately, the courts are immune to that type of pressure."

The lawsuit charges that the Town Board acted in an arbitrary and capricious manner when denying an 860,000 square foot retail mall for the industrial property located alongside the Long Island Expressway. Alternatively, the legal papers seek to have the court compel the Town Board to review under SEQRA environmental regulations the developer's proposal for a reduced version of the mall that would allow for 750,000 square feet of construction.

"Given the substantial economic benefits of this project for Long Island, and the fact that the project is substantially less intensive than other unconditionally permitted uses for the property, such as a 1.4 million square-foot office complex, the Town Board's decision is as inexplicable as it is unjustified," continued Mr. Harras.

An industrial relic bordered by tracks and trucks

Once a productive workplace for 600 people and the source of significant revenues for the Town of Oyster Bay and Nassau County, the project site was vacated by the Cerro Wire Company in 1986. The industrial buildings on the site have stood unused for 14 years and contribute nothing in terms of taxes, investment revenue, job creation or the enhancement of surrounding property values.

Last year Lord & Taylor signed a letter of intent to anchor the developer's Mall at Oyster Bay. Lord & Taylor joined the previously announced Neiman Marcus, completing the anchor-store line-up for this major upscale mall. The property is abutted by two highway depots, a landfill, an industrial park, the Long Island Expressway and the Port Jefferson line of the Long Island Railroad.

It is expected that its $281 million dollar development cost will generate 4,500 construction jobs, 1,900 permanent jobs, $7.3 million in annual property taxes and $22.5 million in sales taxes. That revenue alone would make a substantive difference in how county and town municipalities will balance the budgets.