Project Sailfish and Medline Industries, two warehouses totaling more than 1 million square feet, recently applied to the Town of Montgomery Industrial Development Agency (IDA) for real property tax abatements.

Project Sailfish requested $21.5 million in real property tax exemptions from the Town of Montgomery IDA. The applicant also requested $3.2 million in New York State sales and compensating use tax and $600,000 in mortgage recording taxes.

The total project cost is at least $75 million.

At least 800 jobs will be created, 775 of which will be unskilled hourly positions starting at $31,200 plus benefits and 25 will be salaried professional or managerial positions starting at $600,000, according to Town of Montgomery IDA documents.

The average estimated annual salary of jobs to be created is $32,156. The annual salary range of jobs to be created is $31,200 to $60,000.

Located near Interstate-84 (I-84) and the intersections of NYS Route 17K and 747, the $75 million project will turn 188 acres of vacant land into an approximately 1-million-square-foot warehouse with more than 1,000 car parking spaces and 225 truck trailer spaces.

The developer of the warehouse is Bluewater Industrial Partners, LLC. Requested benefits will be passed directly to the occupant through reduced initial project costs and reduced ongoing operational costs. Bluewater has not released the name of the occupant yet, although the warehouse will exist for the fulfillment of consumer goods.

Bluewater Representative Donald Chase said the fulfillment of the benefits requested will factor into the occupant’s decision to remain in the proposed Montgomery location.

“The importance of a proposed PILOT [payment-in-lieu-of-taxes] cannot be underestimated when considering competing options available to the proposed occupant,” Chase said in a letter in the IDA application. “While we believe that the site and geographic location fulfill the requirements of the occupant, they continue to consider other locations. The finalization of a lease agreement, precipitating the inception of the project, is in entirely contingent on a favorable result of this application.”

Medline requested approximately $17.6 million from the Town of Montgomery Industrial Agency (IDA) for real property tax exemptions.

The project has also requested $8 million in exemptions for New York State sales and compensating use tax and an additional 15-year enhanced payment-in-lieu-of-taxes (PILOT) that would save the company approximately $21.2 million from the Orange County IDA. The total capital project costs are approximately $117.8 million, according to Town of Montgomery IDA documents.

Medline plans to relocate 340 workers from an outgrown 500,000-square-foot facility in Wawayanda to the proposed facility in the Town of Montgomery. It plans to phase in between 150 and 200 jobs over five years. About 25 percent of Medline’s employment would be filled by Town of Montgomery residents, according to IDA documents.

The average estimated annual salary of jobs to be created would be $37,000 before bonuses and the annual salary range of jobs to be created is $33,000 to $69,000.

Town Supervisor Rodney Winchell and other members of the IDA board requested that both projects use local labor during construction. Board member Matthew Stoddard said the IDA is considering adopting policies requiring applicants to hire local labor during construction as a condition of approval for tax benefits.

“We should not be fueling other states’ or other counties’ economies, especially when lending a helping hand with these tax incentives,” Stoddard said.