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Area Development - Site Selection, Facility Planning and Workforce Development

Calverton Aviation & Technology Eyes Riverhead, New York for Aerospace Tech Hub

11/12/2018
Calverton Aviation & Technology recently passed a major milestone when the Riverhead Town Board approved the sale to CAT of a more than 1,643-acre undeveloped parcel in eastern Suffolk County, New York. The Long Island site is the former Naval Weapons Industrial Reserve Plant in the hamlet of Calverton.

According to Triple Five Group, one of Calverton Aviation & Technology’s strategic partners, over the next decade CAT intends to leverage several billions of dollars of private investment to transform this significant asset into a world-class aerospace technology, innovation and high-tech manufacturing hub.

The Calverton Aviation & Technology Innovation Hub seeks to create a critical mass of companies in a new aerospace cluster. The CAT Hub will anchor emerging industries around the next generation carbon and composite production lines of Luminati Aerospace, one of the Founding Partners of CAT.

In addition, CAT plans on investing in advanced electric motor and drive sub-systems that are required to be the basic building blocks of the massive market growth of electric aviation, officials explained.

CAT said it will work with the Town of Riverhead to develop a "critical path" of milestones necessary to complete the due diligence process and record the subdivision necessary to transfer the property, and will simultaneously pursue building permits for the Phase I building, so that shovel can break ground as soon as possible after the transfer of the property to CAT.

Company officials noted, the property is a New York State designated Urban Renewal Area as well as a federally designated HUB zone. In 2018, the U.S. Treasury Department designated Calverton as an Opportunity Zone, a new federal program designed to boost private investment in underserved urban and rural communities via tax benefits such as temporary tax deferrals on capital gains or investment profits. Triple Five, the other Founding Partner of CAT, is creating an Opportunity Zone Fund to invest into the site and other designated zones across the United States.

"We believe working in partnership with New York State, the local community, Suffolk County and the federal government, we can restore Long Island's aerospace heritage along with the associated high-tech manufacturing job base, a monumental task formerly thought to be impossible. Our goal is to invest into this site and others on Long Island and throughout New York State, including our recent purchase of the former Dowling NATS (National Aviation & Transportation Study) Center in Brookhaven Town, to curate the most significant aerospace projects and propel the Long Island eco-system to a leadership position in advanced technology," said Stuart Bienenstock, Business Development for Triple Five Group.

In September, Triple Five Aviation Industries, a subsidiary Triple Five Worldwide Group, also closed on its $14 million purchase of the 105-acre property next to the Brookhaven Calabro Airport in Shirley, New York. The site includes a 70,645-square-foot, 70-room dormitory; an athletic complex; and a 65,000-square-foot office/classroom complex which also features an airplane hangar. The goal for the site is an industry-university research and development center for advanced transportation technology and propel the Long Island eco-system and the William Floyd Tech Corridor to a leadership position in advanced technology, similar to Silicon Valley.

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