Syosset Park deal jeopardized amid dispute over $1M in fees

A joint venture has pulled out of its proposed purchase of 150 Miller Place from Oyster Bay’s Department of Public Works and demanded the town pay back a $30 million deposit and hundreds of thousands of dollars in fees, Newsday reported. Syosset Park Development LLC is a partnership between Simon Property Group and Manhasset-based Castagna Realty. They reached an agreement on the sale in 2013, but the town kept pushing it back, incurring $680,000 in deferral fees, according to the developers. The town also failed to pay $592,000 for rent and fees for a cellphone tower on the property, the developers said. Starting in September, the developer sent four notices to the town to say it had defaulted. They also met with town officials in October, called and emailed various other times. The developers had hoped to transform the land into a mixed-use development with 625 residences, two hotels with 350 rooms total, a 30-acre park, 464,000 square feet of retail, 200,000 square feet of offices and restaurants. Initially, neighbors worried the development on the onetime Superfund site could pose an environmental hazard to the area. Impact Environmental was selected to test and analyze the land, but was never actually contracted. Oyster Bay officials said in April that they were renegotiating with the developers, who were considering removing residential parts of their project to focus on industrial use, according to Long Island Business News. The town was also trying to convince the developers to allow the Department of Public Works to stay on the property. The 2013 agreement allowed the department to keep its complex there for three years and rent thereafter. Since September, the town has paid the developers $75,000 a month in rent. [Newsday]