Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele, Jr. (I, D, WF-Sag Harbor) today announced that the Southampton campus has been included as part of the START-UP New York Program which was approved by the State Legislature. Governor Cuomo unveiled the details of the plan earlier this week. Specifically, Atlantic Hall, the old Southampton College library building, has been included by SUNY as part of the program and 5,000 square feet of the building has been designated a tax free area.

Participating companies in START-UP NY will not pay any taxes (no income tax; no business, corporate state or local taxes; no sales tax; no property tax; and no franchise fees) for 10 years. Employees in participating companies will pay no income taxes for the first five years. For the second five years, employees will pay no taxes on income up to $200,000 of wages for individuals, $250,000 for a head of household, and $300,000 for taxpayers filing a joint return. The number of net new jobs eligible for personal income tax benefits will not exceed 10,000 new jobs per year.

In order to locate into a START-UP NY tax free community, a business needs to be aligned with or further the academic mission of the campus, college or university sponsoring the tax-free community. Businesses participating in the program will need to have positive community and economic benefits. Every business must create and maintain net new jobs in order to participate. Businesses must:

• Be a new start-up company;
• Be a company from out-of-state that is relocating to New York State; or
• Be the expansion of an existing New York State company – for example, a company creating a new line of business or opening a new advanced manufacturing facility – as long as it can demonstrate that it is creating new jobs and not moving existing jobs.

In addition, New York State start-ups that “hatch” from New York State incubators will be eligible to enter tax-free communities and be eligible for the benefits under the program. Certain types of businesses are excluded from the program, including retail and wholesale businesses; restaurants and hospitality; professional practices like law firms and medical practices; and energy production and distribution companies. Companies will be eligible to enter into the program until December 31, 2020 and by that time Empire State Development (ESD) will prepare an evaluation of the effectiveness of the program in order to determine whether eligibility should be extended.

Businesses will apply directly to the participating college (in our case, Stony Brook) and, once a business is accepted, ESD will have 60 days to review the application to ensure eligibility.

Assemblyman Thiele, the Chairman of the Assembly Task Force on University/Industry Cooperation, stated, “The designation of Atlantic Hall as a tax free community as part of the START-UP New York Program is another step towards the revitalization of the Southampton campus. I thank the Governor and Stony Brook University for our inclusion in this program. This will insure that eastern Long Island is a major player in creating jobs and improving the region’s business climate. There is great potential for this location. For example, with the Master’s in Fine Arts Program at Southampton now including film and theater, there is the possibility of a startup company establishing a post-production facility for TV or motion pictures at Atlantic Hall.”