Italian Company Plans $15.5M Bronx Facility with City Aid
By Tobias Salinger December 31, 2014 12:15 pm
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An Italian company that makes high-end furniture, lighting, home accessories and jewelry would purchase and renovate a 50,000-square-foot vacant building in the Bronx with the help of city tax breaks under a plan officials with the New York City Industrial Development Agency will review next week.
SICIS North America, which already operates a Soho retail location at 470 Broome Street, would acquire a two-story property at 150 Bruckner Boulevard in the Port Morris neighborhood and add five full-time employees through tax exemptions and abatements worth $9.6 million, according to an application the company’s real estate arm filed with the city.
The Milan-based firm known for its mosaic tile designs would pay $14 million for the land and the building, implement a $1.2 million renovation and buy $300,000 worth of machinery, furnishings and equipment, the application says. Officials with NYCIDA, a division of the city’s Economic Development Corporation, will hold a public hearing about the proposal at EDC headquarters on Jan. 8.
An official with SICIS North America declined to comment on the proposal or describe the company’s plans for the empty industrial property that’s near the Major Deegan Expressway. The company already operates four other retail locations in North America and curates design shows all over the world, according to its website.
The company would relocate 10 existing staff members to work at the new facility and hire five new ones, according to a public hearing notice posted on the EDC website. The new staffers, who the SICIS would hire over a three-year period beginning in the operation’s anticipated start date in January, would earn an average of $26.45 per hour, the company’s application says.
In exchange, the city would reward SICIS with a 25-year building tax exemption worth $9.5 million, a 25-year land tax abatement for $30,000 and a $51,300 sales tax exemption. SICIS would generate $12.2 million in city tax revenues if the plan is approved, according to the application.
