Zoning approved for costumer's warehouse

The Islip Town Board has approved zoning and other changes that will allow Rubie’s Costume Co. to build a 196,000-square-foot warehouse on the south side of Candlewood Road in Brentwood.

Rubie’s, the largest costume maker in the world, already owns a warehouse on the north side of Candlewood Road. A land swap with neighboring Orograin Bakeries Inc., will permit both companies’ trucks to exit south on Inez Drive, away from residential areas. Rubie’s, after talks with the town, has agreed also to instruct drivers not to leave its factory via westbound Candlewood Road.

Deputy planning commissioner Jeanmarie Buffett told a Tuesday night town board meeting that Rubie’s had also agreed to pave a sidewalk on the north side of Candlewood Road equal to the length of its new warehouse street frontage. The town considers the section, close to residential streets, a higher priority for sidewalk paving.

Residents had earlier expressed concern about the likely increase in truck traffic the new warehouse might bring.

The town’s Industrial Development Agency is considering about $1.5 million in tax breaks for Rubie's — including $931,637 in property tax abatement — over the next decade. The site, now vacant, accrues $25,000 a year in town taxes. A new warehouse would generate additional tax revenue of $1.3 million over the 10-year period, economic development director Bill Mannix said in May.