County: lease deal saves money

Responding to information in last week's Herald story "$20 million for new 1st Precinct," Nassau County Legislator Joe Scannell (D-Baldwin), along with a group of county finance and real estate experts, reached out to try to set the record straight with the clock ticking down to Tuesday’s election.

"People have gotten completely the wrong impression," Scannell said of the article, which reported that the new 1st Precinct could cost county taxpayers close to $20 million over a 30-year period — the first term of the proposed lease between the county and Baldwin landlord David Rosen for a new 1st Precinct in the Rosen Shopping Center on Grand Avenue. Scannell did not dispute the $20 million figure, but said the county would get a better deal in the long run because a private developer like Rosen can do the construction work faster and more cheaply than a municipality. “We fought with the landlord to get a great deal,” Scannell said. “We didn't give Rosen a sweetheart deal.”

Dermot Kelly, the county's director of real estate and planning, said the county would save money by leasing the property from Rosen rather than purchasing it. Kelly explained that the county would have to pay the debt service on approximately $7 million that it will bond for construction of the new precinct, which he said comes out to much less than if the county were to bond to purchase land and construct its own facility, which he estimated would cost a little over $17 million. "It's much more expensive if we do it ourselves," Kelly said.

He added that the county also secured rent payments on the property for significantly less than market value, and that if the county were to act on its eminent domain options on Merrick Road — where the current 1st Precinct headquarters are located — that process likely would have been expensive as well. “It's a huge cost difference at the end of the day,” Kelly said. “We analyzed 16 ways from Sunday, and it's a much better deal.”