NASCAR Driver’s $19M Subaru Dealership Gets Preliminary Incentives In Hempstead Village

HEMPSTEAD, NY. — The Town of Hempstead’s Industrial Development Agency granted a preliminary checkered flag to a tax incentive package that would flatten the track for construction of a Subaru dealership at 209 N. Franklin St. in the Village of Hempstead. If approved, the dealership will be affiliated with Huntington Station dealer Lia Auto Group, owned by former stock car racer Don T. Lia.

According to an economic and fiscal impact study obtained by Patch, the dealership development group is seeking a 15-year Payment In Lieu Of Taxes (PILOT) agreement, as well as a sales tax exemption on building materials and a mortgage recording tax exemption. The PILOT schedule that the developers seek would see them pay $103,000 in tax over each of the first three years of the deal, before the tax begins to rise gradually, topping out at $290,000 in its 15th year.

The tax exemptions could save developers nearly $1 million, with a projected sales tax exemption of up to $741,750 and a mortgage recording tax exemption of up to $117,900. In total, the PILOT will lower the developers’ total tax obligation from $4,150,420 to $2,769,000, saving them about $1.3 million, according to the economic impact study.

The final approval for these incentives is still subject to public hearing before it can be put to a vote. Public hearing on the tax incentives have not been scheduled yet, IDA officials said. The plan to construct the Subaru dealership would include the demolition of an existing 16,000-square-foot property that was previously a Lia-owned Mazda dealership, which would allow North Coast Subaru, currently located in Glen Cove, to travel south into Hempstead.