Alfonse D'Amato

The $100 million giveaway

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By far, the greatest scam I’ve ever seen involves a long-controversial 6-acre vacant plot of beachfront property in Long Beach known as the Superblock.

Despite many promises of developments ranging from hotels to condos to rental housing over the past three decades, the property still lies fallow.

On Jan. 23, 2014, iStar, a publicly traded real estate and investment company boasting a market cap of $7 billion, came before the Long Beach Zoning Board of Appeals, asking to build two 160-foot-tall towers with a combined 522 units of apartments — by far the tallest buildings in the city. The deal also included 11,000 square feet of retail space.

iStar projected that the rents would be between $2,275 and $3,575 per month. Construction was set to begin last summer.

The company asked the zoning board for a variance in order to construct 15 stories of apartments on top of a two-story parking garage, with 100 more units than zoning codes permitted.

At the hearing, iStar’s counsel said, “iStar has the financial wherewithal to do this project if the variance is granted, and intends to do it.” The company’s expert witness testified that the building would generate a 13 percent return, and its vice president, Karl Frey, said, “We are fully prepared to start and complete the project we are presenting tonight and requesting the variances for.” He went on to say that iStar would bid out the contract within 90 days of the project’s approval.

On Feb. 27, 2014, the Zoning Board of Appeals granted the requested variance.

Over 15 months later, iStar is now crying poor, and saying it won’t build unless it receives a massive tax abatement from the Nassau County Industrial Development Agency.

Talk about a bait and switch! The developer first promised that it would start construction 90 days after the zoning board decision became final. Now, all these months later, it’s trying to sneak through a giveaway of more than $100 million.

First, iStar tried to have the county IDA hold a hearing on May 27, at the Long Beach Public Library, with scant notice. Why the library? The company obviously didn’t want people to know about this raid on them — the county’s taxpayers — and wanted to let the blame fall on the IDA.

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