$500G tax break for Aquebogue bowling alley

A new bowling alley under construction in Aquebogue -- a project that stalled when its original developer went bankrupt -- has been given a series of tax benefits worth more than $500,000 by the Riverhead Industrial Development Agency.

The board voted Monday night, 3-0 with one abstention, to grant Jeffrey Rimland, the developer who picked up the project and expects to complete it by summer, the same tax benefits awarded before the previous developer went bankrupt.

Riverhead IDA executive director Tracy Stark-James said those benefits include a reduction in real estate taxes worth about $290,000 over seven years, a sales tax exemption on the $5.2 million project worth about $224,000, and a mortgage tax exemption worth $42,000.

The precise value of the exemptions will depend on a number of things, including tax rates that will be in effect for the seven-year life of the exemption.

The completed 31,000-square-foot bowling alley will start with a 50 percent reduction in town taxes for three years, then see that benefit reduced by 5 percent a year until it ends.

At an earlier IDA hearing, Rimland said the bowling alley, when completed, will create 50 full-time and part-time jobs and generate a payroll of about $1 million.

The bowling alley is on 6.2 acres near where state routes 25 and 58 meet, east of the Riverhead business district.