The Corridor Journal of Strategic Alliances Building Arts & Real Property | Page 6

Developers seek those parcels near transportation hubs,
which RMF attorneys help them to assess, analyze, and
shepherd through municipal approvals. “As important as
our technical work is, we must also convince the community
of the overall value of the project,” Leno states.  RMF’s
practice groups for acquisition, zoning, land use, and
municipal work together on political outreach before any
deal is inked.  

Multifamily housing does not get done on Long Island
without a negotiated incentive package, in which the
mortgage tax, sometimes a PILOT agreement (payment in
lieu of taxes), sales taxes, all help to make the math work
for industrial, office and residential developers.  Edward
Ambrosino, Of Counsel, is the region’s leading IDA guru. 
RMF assembles more IDA-incentivized deals than any
comparable firm and NYS has the most IDA activity in the
country, with its network of local agencies that intimately
understand their home markets.  RMF worked at a
sophisticated level with the two counties and some town
IDAs on the Canon headquarters’ IDA package, and other
mega projects for leading hotel and retail chains.

For once both developers and the community were on the
same side, when Mill Creek Residential, the project near a
transit center represented by RMF was proposed. Higher
density mixed use was acceptable to the community
because a “seedy” motel−around which a toxic zone
existed that businesses and pedestrians refused to enter−
was slated for demolition to make way for the new housing.  When the firm represented a major developer that
refinanced 46 properties spanning Nassau and Suffolk
RMF attorneys work with local Industrial Development Counties, it became critical for the RMF team to work jointly
Agencies to provide assistance to noteworthy projects.  with the two counties to shape a united and consistent IDA

Ed Ambrosino, David Leno and Eric Rubenstein

benefit package. Usually the IDAs work independently.  
RMF, working with the IDAs, also closed on the expansion of
a major Farmingdale manufacturer of precision valves used
in aerospace, and a nationally recognized confectionary
manufacturer and distributor, which acquired a warehouse
facility in Hicksville. Manufacturing and distribution are
often considered the highest value types of businesses for
LI.  Another RMF-guided deal was the siting and closing
for Atlantic Auto Group, an operator of multi-brand car
dealerships. 
One of the biggest municipal redevelopment projects
in Nassau County history is Glen Isle, Glen Cove, a
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partnership between master developers Renaissance
Downtowns and RXR Realty, which RMF represents.
Preceded by environmental cleanup of a brownfield, and
set to break ground this year,  it is a multi-year project
of 850 condo and rental residential units, retailers,
offices, a hotel and conference center, plus cultural and
streetscape components.  Getting a huge deal like this
done, Rubenstein says, sets the stage for greater activity
for other big projects that are to come.   
Glen Isle sets another precedent in its incorporation of a
new type of financing that has been around for a while but
never used before in such magnitude in New York−until a
legislative tweak gave it legs. The financing vehicle uses