Business community backs Cappelli

Millions in tax breaks likely to be granted by IDA

By FRITZ MAYER

KIAMESHA LAKE, NY — They said his project would return the county to the glory days of the resort industry in decades past. That’s why influential business leaders from Sullivan County backed developer Louis Cappelli’s bid to secure millions of dollars in tax breaks and incentives from the Sullivan County Industrial Development Agency (IDA).

The support came at a public hearing at the town hall in the Town of Thompson on August 12. The $1.5 billion project will include a 750-room hotel, a 100,000-square-foot gaming racino, a horse-racing track, golf courses that will be redesigned by golf legend Jack Nicklaus, a spa hotel and more features yet to be determined, such as a water park and hiking trails.

New York State officials have already passed special legislation that will give Cappelli millions of dollars in incentives, and local officials are likely to add more.

Joe Apicella, a spokesman for Cappelli Enterprises, said when computed from 2008 through 2050, the IDA breaks would amount to about $107 million in tax savings, but the benefits to the community through the new jobs created and other new revenue to the county would be more than 10 times that amount or about $1.28 billion.

Community leaders heaped praise on the project and the developer.

Steve Ruwoldt, CEO of Catskill Regional Medical Center, said the projected 2,000 new jobs provided by the project, which has been referred to Entertainment City in the past, would allow the hospital to help stabilize its workforce by providing a larger year-round population that would use its services.

Jonathan Drapkin, CEO of Pattern for Progress, a regional planning group, said that there is no other project anywhere in the region seeking to create as many new jobs, and his organization supports the effort.

Les Kristt, owner of Kristt Office Equipment Company in Monticello, said of Cappelli, “We’ve been waiting for a knight in shining armor for years to rescue us?he is here.”

Allan Scott, the CEO of the IDA, stressed that all the taxing entities that currently collect taxes from Cappelli’s properties in the county will continue to receive the same level of taxes. The tax breaks and incentives would be used to fund development going forward.

The IDA is expected to make a decision on granting the tax breaks as early as August 15.