East Northport Assisted Living Project Revived With $4.2 Million Tax Break

A senior housing project that stalled in East Northport four years ago is back on track under new ownership, after the Suffolk County Industrial Development Agency gave preliminary approval Thursday to $4.2 million in tax relief.

Silver Fox Senior Living Inc., a nonprofit, has assumed control of the development at 1381-1387 Pulaski Road. Plans call for an 86-unit building providing assisted living and dementia care, to be managed by Sunrise Senior Living Management LLC, a McLean, Virginia-based company that already operates 10 assisted living communities across Long Island.

The IDA's benefit package consists of a sales-tax exemption worth up to $3 million on construction materials, supplies and furnishings, along with $1.3 million in property tax savings spread over 15 years — a 30 percent reduction. The Suffolk County Economic Development Corp., which serves as the IDA's sister agency, also voted Thursday to issue tax-exempt bonds covering the entire construction cost and to reduce the mortgage recording tax by an unspecified amount. As a condition of the EDC's involvement, all workers on the job must receive prevailing wages.

The original developer, Sunrise Senior Living Management, had been awarded $3.4 million in IDA incentives in 2022, but those benefits went unused after the financing fell through before any construction began. The switch to nonprofit ownership is designed to make tax-exempt bond financing available — an option that did not exist under the prior structure.

"The project was not built due to a lack of available equity and debt funding in the market," wrote Silver Fox executive Arvind Ramakrishnan in the IDA application. "The project is now returning in a different structure, and with the support and benefits of the EDC and IDA, the project is expected to be financeable and capable of being built."

The updated design is somewhat scaled back from the 2022 proposal — 72,100 square feet across two floors rather than the earlier 77,100-square-foot, two-story concept, and 86 units rather than 90. Studio apartments have been eliminated; every unit will be either a one-bedroom or a two-room layout. Of the 86 units, 64 are designated for assisted living and 22 for memory care.

Philip Kroskin, a real estate executive with Sunrise Senior, said the smaller footprint reduces the total number of residents but affords each one more privacy. Job creation projections have also been revised downward, from 90 positions to 64, for the same reason; the IDA application puts the average annual wage at $65,538.

Construction could get underway later this year, with an anticipated opening in mid-2028. The project comes as Suffolk County's elderly population continues to expand; federal and state data project that residents 65 and older will account for 25 to 30 percent of most New York counties' populations by 2030.