Nassau IDA gives tax breaks to storage company that will create 2 jobs

Nassau County has given tax breaks for a proposed self-storage facility in Hicksville that will create two jobs, the fifth such deal in recent years.

The county's Industrial Development Agency backed a plan Wednesday night by Public Storage to replace a vacant office building at 800 South Oyster Bay Rd. with storage units totaling 128,000 square feet.

The $10.4 million project will "serve an unmet need in the county," IDA executive director Joseph J. Kearney said Thursday.

Public Storage was approved for a sales-tax exemption of up to $327,000 and a property tax break that freezes the tax rate for three years, followed by increases of 1.66 percent in each of the next 12 years.

Similar incentives have been awarded to self-storage facilities in Garden City, Elmont, Hicksville and Massapequa.

The Babylon Town IDA and Glen Cove IDA also have backed such projects.

Critics of IDAs, such as Long Island Jobs with Justice, have said valuable tax incentives should be reserved for factories, service companies and other large employers. Only a handful of jobs would be created or protected with each self-storage project.

Public Storage said it will create the equivalent of two full-time jobs in Hicksville that pay about $37,000 per year, excluding health insurance benefits. The publicly traded company, the world's largest owner and operator of self-storage facilities, is based in California.

Kearney said, "Oftentimes, these are blighted buildings being replaced by new development that doesn't use many municipal services or the school district . . . The demand is still great in the county" for self-storage as seniors move from single-family homes to assisted-living units or other housing.