Tag: Howitt Bayview LLC

Penfield apartments, Culver Road office receive tax incentive approvals

Design plans by Passero Associates show the configuration of a 60-unit apartment community off Empire Boulevard being developed by the Howitt Bayview, LLC (source: town of Penfield public records).
Design plans by Passero Associates show the configuration of a 60-unit apartment community off Empire Boulevard being developed by the Howitt Bayview, LLC. (Source: town of Penfield public records)

A proposed 60-unit apartment community in Penfield and renovations for the Security Risk Advisors, Inc. office at the Culver Road Armory received approval for tax incentives from the County of Monroe Industrial Development Agency on Tuesday.

Howitt Bayview LLC, owned by the Howitt family, will build a four-story, 86,560-square-foot apartment building along Wilbur Tract Road, just off Empire Boulevard and near K2 Brothers Brewing.

There will be 15 units per floor, with the first floor reserved for residents 55-and-over. Seven of those first-floor apartments also will be meet affordable housing requirements and three will be ADA-compliant.

To gain approval for the $13.4 million project from the town of Penfield, developers agreed to create a left-turn lane to ease traffic issues along Empire Boulevard. The road construction is expected to cost around $420,000.

COMIDA granted a sales tax exemption of $541,545, a mortgage recording tax exemption of $82,500 and a PILOT (payment in lieu of taxes) agreement that will provide a net benefit of $1.12 million to the developer.

Re-creating the space for Security Risk Advisors will ensure longer-term tenancy and enable the Philadelphia-based firm to continue to grow Rochester operations.

The firm has 16 full-time and four part-time employees in Rochester and expects that number to grow to 40 over the next several years, officials told the COMIDA board.

The $405,000 renovation was granted a sales tax exemption of $43,920.

Developer Fred Rinaldi of Whitney Baird Associations, LLC, said property owners often must recapitalize spaces for tenants during a lease to make them “future proof.” It’s a trend Rinaldi said “is likely to continue for the next series of years.”

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Developer seeks COMIDA incentives for Penfield apartments

The developers of a proposed new 60-unit apartment community along Empire Boulevard in Penfield will go before the County of Monroe Industrial Development Agency later this month, seeking just over $1.5 million in tax incentives to move forward with the project.

Howitt Bayview LLC, an entity owned by the Jack and Harirette Howitt family, plans to begin construction in the spring on the development at 1211 Empire Blvd., with a target date for completion of March 31, 2025, according to documents filed with COMIDA.

The four-story building, parking and necessary roadwork was approved by the Penfield Planning Board in 2020. Howitt Bayview is asking for COMIDA to provide a sales tax exemption ($541,545), a mortgage recording tax exemption ($82,500) and real property tax abatement through a PILOT agreement (payment in lieu of taxes) worth $1,121,211, according to the Application for Assistance filed with COMIDA.

A public hearing is scheduled for Dec. 15 at Penfield Town Hall, with the vote regarding approval on the agenda for the Dec. 20 monthly board meeting.

The $13.4 million project will include 15 ground-floor units for residents 55 and older. Of those units, seven will meet the COMIDA definition of affordable housing (household earnings don’t exceed 60 percent of the county median income). Another three will be ADA accessible.

As a contingency for approval by the planning board, the developer must pay for construction of a left-turn lane on Empire Boulevard to Wilbur Tract Road.

[email protected]/(585) 653-4020