Suffolk County contemplates selling former missile base in Westhampton

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The former BOMARC facility in Westhampton.

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Suffolk County is now considering selling its 186-acre property in Westhampton, which was used as a missile base during the Cold War, to real estate developers as part of a concerted effort to keep the county financially healthy in the long run.

Suffolk officials could line their pockets with anywhere from $23 million to $47 million if they sell the land that is located north of Old Country Road, according to a study recently completed by Newmark Knight Frank, a Melville consultant that was retained by the county. The goal, according to county officials, would be to sell the land to developers interested in building new homes on the property.

If the sale goes through, Suffolk officials would have to relocate their current operations at the site, which include a large records storage facility, a police shooting range and a training course for emergency vehicles, explained Chief Deputy County Executive Chris Kent. The property, which features the shells of 56 former missile silos, also houses more than 3,000 vehicles that were impounded by either the Suffolk County District Attorney’s office or the Suffolk County Police Department.

The silos for the missiles, the latter of which were named after their developers, the Boeing and the Michigan Aerospace Research Center, or BOMARC, are also used for storage.

Even though it states that the county should own land rather than lease it, the study also recommends the sale of the Westhampton property because it could fetch a good price on the open real estate market.

Additionally, the possible relocation of the shooting range, record storage facility and other offices further west could cut the county’s transportation costs, according to Mr. Kent. He explained that, at the present time, Suffolk employees, which include police officers, must travel to the Westhampton facility.

Mr. Kent said he and his colleagues are already putting together the proposed 2010 county budget and are seriously considering selling the Westhampton property. The county is also thinking about paying for an analysis that would determine where its Westhampton operations could be relocated.

“We’re taking the recommendations and figuring out where to put them,” Mr. Kent said.

Newmark Knight Frank presented the study to the Suffolk County Legislature in June. The consultants were hired to complete the $280,000 study in April 2008, according to Mr. Kent.

Selling the 186 acres is not the only way that Suffolk County has been looking to turn a profit on the Westhampton property. Suffolk Legislator Bill Lindsay, the presiding officer of the body, last year led an initiative to have the scrap metal left to rust in the former missile silos removed and sold to junk yards.

Michael Pitcher, a spokesman for Mr. Lindsay, said Monday that the Suffolk County Department of Public Works had removed more than 90 percent of the junk metal stored in the former missile silos over the past few months. Mr. Pitcher did not have specifics on the total tons of metal removed, or the amount of money received from the sale.

“We don’t have a tally on how much we’ve got,” Mr. Pitcher said.

Last year, Mr. Lindsay estimated that the initiative could bring in as much as $1.2 million in revenue for the county.

Mr. Pitcher said Mr. Lindsay is also working on auctioning off some of the 3,000 cars now stored on the property. Because most of the cars were involved in serious accidents or DWI cases, the Suffolk County District Attorney’s office or police department must first verify that the vehicles are no longer needed for court cases. This process has slowed up the process of clearing out of the cars, Mr. Pitcher said.

Mr. Lindsay’s scrap metal initiative sought to immediately inject money into the county’s coffers. The county also enlisted the help of Newmark Knight Frank to look at its real estate holdings in order to cut down on its yearly expenses in the future.

“We did this because we have so many pieces of property that we own or occupy, and we’re looking at all the ways we can downsize government ownership and reduce the cost of occupying county offices,” Mr. Kent said. “We’re looking at reducing the amount of property we own and we could possibly also make money by selling off assets.”

He emphasized that the potential sale of the Westhampton property is not a quick fix to make up for an anticipated $150 million decline in sales tax revenues that the county is expecting to collect this year.

“The Newmark Knight Frank study is a long-range plan on how to reduce expenses over time, by paying less for space that we occupy,” Mr. Kent said.

He added that the county is not utilizing the Westhampton land to its full potential and that, at this point, it makes the most sense to sell it to developers. “It’s valuable land, and we’re using it to store impounded vehicles, surplus equipment and archives of records, which could be done in other places,” Mr. Kent said.