DEVELOPER’S PLAN TO PURCHASE FAIRGROUNDS FACES SOME BIG OBSTACLES

Even as State DEC was preparing to make a purchase offer for the property, Gyrodyne announced last August that it had entered into what it described as a “Purchase Agreement” with a prominent developer who hopes to build on Flowerfield Fairgrounds. While that announcement came as a disappointment to government officials and other stakeholders working to see the property acquired for preservation as open space, a review of the Purchase Agreement Gyrodyne was required to file with the United Securities and Exchange Commission revealed that the sale of the property to the developer cannot move forward unless a number of conditions are satisfied.

Those conditions include:

• The final approval of Gyrodyne’s subdivision plan, which is still tied up in court.
• Two key approvals from Suffolk County – a permit for Gyrodyne’s controversial sewer plant, and an approval of tax breaks for the developer by the Suffolk County Industrial Development Agency.

Since the County is working actively to preserve the property as open space, it is not clear whether those conditions allowing the sale of the property to the developer can ever be met.