Glen Cove, agencies pay off millions in loans

The city of Glen Cove and two quasi-city agencies have finished paying off several multi-million-dollar loans, Mayor Reginald Spinello recently announced.

The Glen Cove Community Development Agency and Industrial Development Agency on Dec. 7 finished paying back loans from 1999 and 2008 that totaled $8,350,000, said Anne LaMorte, chief financial officer for the IDA and CDA.

The loan, from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, was for the acquisition and environmental remediation of land for part of the Garvies Point redevelopment along the city’s waterfront. 

The $5,967,000 payment that was made on Dec. 7 was from the IDA’s sale of 44 acres to Garvies Point developer RXR Glen Isle Partners, Spinello said.

RXR is paying $25 million for the land. The first payment from RXR — $10,238,952 — was paid upon last month’s closing, LaMorte said.

In addition to paying back the principal, the city paid nearly $1.9 million in interest on the loan over the last 17 years, LaMorte said. Previous payments on the principal were in 2006, 2014, 2015 and October 2016. 

Also, on Nov. 30 the CDA and IDA paid back a $552,592 loan from Nassau County for more environmental remediation at Garvies Point. The agencies paid back the entire principal, plus $75,553 in interest. 

Spinello said the loan repayments show that Garvies Point is yielding financial benefits for the city.

We still have a ways to go, but we’re certain on the right path,” he said.

Separate from those two loan paybacks, the City of Glen Cove paid $4,661,844 in principal and interest from an April loan that was made to the city to tide it over while waiting for promised federal and state grants to arrive, Spinello said.