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IMPACTS ON THE ECONOMY AND EMPLOYMENT
Sales Tax Revenue Impacts
The DEIS states that “the proposed action is also expected to increase tax revenue to the Town of
Southold, Suffolk County, and the State of New York. . . Based on an average cost of $20,000 per boat
for service and storage annually, and an expected 88 yachts to be stored on site, the approximately
$1,760,000 would generate an additional $151,800 annually in sales tax. Additional sales tax would also be
generated by the expected increase in yacht sales by SYC. This projected increase in sales tax from boat sales
is $322,575” (DEIS p. 15). The DEIS states that “the proposed action would . . . increase sales tax
revenue further supporting the Town’s economy” (p.179). It is unclear how state and county sales tax
revenues would “benefit the Town’s economy” as the Town of Southold will receive no direct benefit
from these sales tax revenues.
This information is inconsistent with information included in DEIS Appendix E (Marina Economic Impact
Analysis and Tax Revenue Projections). Appendix E includes copies of data input by the Applicant into the
Marina Economic Impact Calculator (MEIC).1 According to that data, in 2024 2 combined total service and
storage revenues would increase by $1,033,904 over 2020 figures—not $1,760,000. The DEIS has
proportionally overstated the amount of sales tax revenues generated from these activities.3
The DEIS is based on the premise that the Project will be constructed in a single phase over a single
construction season. No mention is made of constructing the Project in phases. However, the applicant
has admitted that bank financing for Building Two is contingent on demonstrating 60% occupancy in
Building One. There is no proven demand for this Project.4 As such, there is no way to know for sure how
many boats will be stored in the buildings during any given year. Projected revenue of $20,000 per boat
is a vague target. Competing indoor storage in Connecticut is charged at $7.50/sq ft 5. A 60-ft boat akin
1 Applicant-input data appears to be for 2020.
2 2024 is the last year for which MEIC projections are calculated, and appears to be the year that it is assumed the Project
would be in operation. These figures need to be updated to reflect a 2025 start of operations.
3Appendix E in the revised DEIS is unchanged from Appendix E in the revised DEIS. Appendix E contains information on
projected 2022 revenues. It should now be possible to compare those projected revenues with actual 2022 revenues. This
will provide some indication of the accuracy of MEIC projections.
4 The applicant made initial reference to the fact that bank financing of the second proposed storage building was dependent
upon a demonstrated occupancy of the first building at a meeting with David Boscola, Donna Boscola, and Stephen Boscola
at the Strong’s Yacht Center office on February 8, 2020 at 2:30pm. Stephen Boscola raised this concern to the Planning Board
at a March 9, 2020 meeting of the Planning Board and this is noted in the minutes of that meeting. The Applicant and his
legal counsel were present and did not object to, or contradict, Mr. Boscola’s statement.
5 Refer to Portland Boat Works’ of Connecticut rate card, https://portlandboatworks.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/21-22-
Rate-Sheet.pdf (accessed 4-23-22) (COMMENT FIGURE ECONOMICS – 1). Competing indoor storage in New Jersey is charged
at 119.69 per foot plus tax. This yields a total pre-tax cost for a 60’ boat at $7181 (see
https://www.teammarineunlimited.com/index.cfm/page/storage, accessed 1-23-23).
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to what SYC sells is 16-ft wide 6 yielding a square footage of 960 feet, which would equate to $7,200 for
inside winter storage. Winterizing costs for the same boat using the competing prices would be
approximately $2,525 for a total (pre-tax) of $9,725. De-Winterizing costs in the springtime could vary
but would be a approximately $1,500, since newer fiberglass boats no longer require major wood work
repairs, exterior hull painting, etc. Total storage bill would then be $11,225 pre-tax which is a little more
than half of the $20,000 estimate.
Using the lower figure, and applying it to 88 yachts, yields a total annual for storage and service of
$987,800. This is very close to the projected revenue ($1,033,904) predicted by the MEIC for 2024, and
inconsistent with estimates in the DEIS.
In order for New York State to realize any new tax revenue from the increased storage and service work
related to the Project, each new boat at SYC would need to come from out of state. Any new SYC
customers from other New York marinas would have a net zero impact on the New York State sales tax
base. The same is true for Suffolk County. It is reasonable to assume that new SYC customers will not be
exclusively from out-of-state. Boat manufacturers typically specify territories for their dealers, so
customers from out of state, or in some cases the tri-state area, might not be allowed to buy a new boat
from Strong’s. This would also limit the market for winter storage and maintenance at SYC, since buyers
of late model boats under warranty typically bring them back to the dealer from which they purchased it
for warranty work.
The DEIS is silent on how SYC will handle repairs covered by warranties, which are charged back to the
manufacturer. Since the boat owners aren’t paying, there is no sales tax to be collected from them. It is
unclear if SYC will charge sales tax to the manufacturers when seeking reimbursement for warranty work
performed, particularly since the manufacturers of the new boats that SYC sells are located outside of
New York State.
The DEIS repeatedly states that “[a]dditional sales tax would be generated by the expected yacht sales by
SYC.” This claim is unsubstantiated. The DEIS does not state how the addition of two storage sheds will
increase yacht sales. In fact, the DEIS states “two new buildings (52,500 SF and 49,000 SF) will be for the
sole purpose of indoor, heated storage for larger vessels (i.e., yachts)” and does not mention anything
about displaying boats for sale, or marketing boats for sale, while stored inside these warehouses. The
Strong’s Marine bi-annual Yacht & Brokerage Showcase is routinely held at their Water Club location south
of the Project site. That location has been described by the developer as “park like.” Boats are displayed
both in the water and on land, in open air.
The DEIS also fails to provide the number of boats sold each year and instead only provides a dollar
figure of SYC Revenue from Boat Sales of “$16,000,000” (DEIS Table 48, p. 278)7. This is very misleading
to the average reader of the DEIS who might assume that $16,000,000 of boat sales at the local sales tax
rate of 8.625% would generate $1,380,000 in sales tax. It would not. Boat sales in New York State are
taxable only up to the sale price of $230,000 per boat – any amount in excess of $230,000 is exempt
6 Cruisers Yachts 60’ Cantius specifications, https://www.cruisersyachts.com/60-cantius.
7 All of the data on revenue and taxes (DEIS Tables 47 and 48) in the revised DEIS is for 2020. This is unchanged from data in the
original DEIS. All of this data should have been updated to include 2021, and possibly 2022, data.
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from New York State sales tax.8 Additionally, in cases where SYC is in fact the "tri-state dealer" (NY-NJ-
CT) (COMMENT FIGURE ECONOMICS -2) for certain boat brands, and is able to sell boats to customers
outside of NYS, any sales of new or used boats to buyers from New Jersey or Connecticut will result in
no sales tax revenue for NYS at all.
The DEIS states “For all six of its Suffolk County locations, SYC paid $7.46 million in payroll in 2020, with
over $347,000 in state withholding taxes being generated. Additionally, over $2.7 million in sales and real
estate (property) taxes were generated in 2020” (p. 274).
It is important to highlight that the DEIS is misleading in this section. The amounts referenced are for all
Strong’s Marine locations in the county, not just SYC. Using “SYC” inconsistently throughout the DEIS to
refer to both the Strong’s Yacht Center and Strong’s affiliated entities often results in the obfuscation
and misrepresentation of data presented in the DEIS.
Information relating to taxes paid, based on revenues derived solely from SYC (Mattituck), although not
included in the DEIS proper, is included in DEIS Appendix E. Appendix E includes copies of data input by
the Applicant into the Marina Economic Impact Calculator (MEIC). According to that data, SYC (Mattituck)
paid $470,139 in sales taxes, and $610,126 in property taxes in 2020, for a total of less than $1.1 million
in sales and property taxes combined.
Property Tax Impacts
The Town of Southold will derive almost no benefit from increased property tax revenues from the
Project.
The DEIS states that the “proposed action represents a continued investment of the applicant into the
Town of Southold, which over the last eight years, has included property investments that have
contributed nearly $300,000 into the Town’s land preservation trust via the 2 percent real estate
transfer tax (pursuant to Chapter 17 – Article IV. Community Preservation Fund).”
It is unclear how the Applicant’s paying of legally required real estate transfer taxes is relevant to the
proposed Project. The proposed Project will not generate any funds for the Town’s land preservation
trust. The applicant’s past payment of these taxes in no way constitutes a mitigative measure for the
proposed Project, as the context in which it is made implies.
8 NYS Dept of Taxation and Finance – Technical Memorandum TSB-M-15(2)S
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The 2022 taxable value of the property is $49,680. The full market value according to the 2022 Final
Assessment Roll is $7,097,143.9 The actual tax bill for the 2022-2023 fiscal-year is $75,335.30.10,11
According to the Southold Board of Assessors (DEIS Appendix E, correspondence dated June 25, 2021),
the increase in assessed value of the property would be $41,000. However, the Project would be eligible
for a 485-b Business Investment Exemption for ten years. As a result, the estimated increase in property
taxes for the first 3 years would be $32,234, Year 4 would be $37,677. These numbers are equivalent to
the combined property taxes paid by just a handful of average single-family Southold residences.
Employment Impacts
The DEIS scope calls for the DEIS to identify the “number of jobs created (full-time and part time)”, and
to “include the current levels of employment by Strong's at the site and employment that would
be generated by job description, salary benefit levels, etc. Assess the impact of additional employees.”
In response to this requirement the DEIS states that “[u]pon implementation of the proposed action,
SYC projects that an additional 11 employees12 would be added to increase the number of employees at
SYC to 28.13 The number of employees on-site would vary seasonally. Currently, from Monday through
Friday, 17 full-time employees are on-site. On Saturdays from approximately March 15 through
September 15 (season), 12 employees are on-site and from September 16 through March 15 (off-
season), the number decreases to four. On Sundays during the season, approximately four employees
9 According to the 2023 Tentative Assessment roll, the taxable value remains unchanged. However, the full market value has
increased significantly to $8,715,789.
10 https://tax.egov.basgov.com/southold/TaxBill/BillDetailsPaymentOptions?TaxBillID=a2317e78-7572-ed11-98ef-
509a4c486007
11 The 2021-2022 data indicates an assessed full market value of $5,645,455. The increase in full market value from 2021 to
2022 was $1,451,688. However, actual taxes paid increased from $74,059.20 to $75,335.30—only $1276
https://tax.egov.basgov.com/southold/TaxBill/BillDetailsPaymentOptions?TaxBillID=49e91495-8957-ec11-98b3-
509a4c486007
12 The Applicant has continuously misrepresented to the public the number of jobs that the Project would create. A fact sheet
widely circulated by the Applicant, and posted on his web site until April 23, 2023, states that the Project will create “at least
15 [not 11] new full-time, year-round career opportunities for local residents.”
https://strongsmarine.com/assets/images/pdf/4.6.22%20SYC%20building%20project%20fact%20sheet.pdf. (Accessed April
12, 2023). In a statement made at the April 15, 2023 meeting of the Southold-Peconic Civic Association, the Applicant again
stated that the Project would create 15 jobs, and that that would be “a big deal.” On April 23, 2023 the Applicant revised his
web site to indicate the Project create only 11 jobs. If 15 jobs are a “big deal,” misrepresenting the number of jobs created
by more than 36% is also a “big deal.”
13 The DEIS scope states that there “are approximately 13 full-time staff at the Strong's Yacht Center and, upon implementation
of the proposed action, the Applicant expects to create an additional 15 career positions” (p.3). However, the DEIS has
updated this number noting that “[s]ince the application was submitted in 2019, the number of full-time employees has
increased by four from 13 to 17 positions due to the growth in boat sales and required maintenance and storage needs
during the off-season” (p.15).
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are on-site and during the off-season, only one employee is on-site. The anticipated 11 new employees
are anticipated to primarily be on-site on weekdays only” (DEIS pp. xxviii, 20, 279).
It is unclear from this if the reference to full-time employees refers to year-round full-time employees,
or if the number of full-time weekday employees varies seasonally. It is also unclear if the anticipated
11 new employees will be year-round or seasonal, as well as full-time employees.14 The DEIS never
refers to the anticipated new employees as “year-round” employees. The DEIS does state that “[A]s a
proposed winter storage facility, the buildings would be largely inactive for almost half of the year” (DEIS
p. 173). This would seem to indicate that any new jobs created would not be year-round.
The DEIS includes (Appendix E) information generated by the Applicant using the Association of Marina
Industries (AMI) Marina Economic Impact Calculator (MEIC), which calculates the impact on the local
economy based on the facility gross revenues provided by the user15. As the DEIS describes (pp.274-
277), the MEIC then calculates the number of direct, indirect, and induced jobs 16 associated with the
revenue information input into the MEIC. The only required data input is revenue data. No information
on the number of existing or anticipated employees is used by the MEIC. Instead, the MEIC is used to
determine the number of anticipated employees.
According to the MEIC-generated data in DEIS Appendix E, reproduced in DEIS Table 46, the number of
“direct” jobs generated by SYC in 2020 was 49. This is at variance with both the 13 full-time jobs that
existed in 2019 and the 17 full-time jobs that presently exist. DEIS Table 49 indicates that the MEIC
calculates that the number of full-time jobs that will be generated in 2024, if the Project is constructed,
will be 60. This is a net increase of 11, and is presumably the source of the statement that the Project
will generate an anticipated increase of 11 full-time employees.
Jobs figures generated by the MEIC include both full-time and part-time jobs. The DEIS’ main text fails to
note this.17 In addition, the MEIC’s significant overestimate of the number of existing jobs calls into
question its appropriateness for use in assessing the Project’s potential economic impacts.
14 The DEIS states that “Currently, from Monday through Friday, 17 full-time employees are on-site “(emphasis added) (DEIS p.
279). The employees to be added as a result of the Project are NOT described as full-time. It is also of note that the
Applicants ‘website for the Project, as of April 2023, states that the Project will create “at least 15 new full-time, year-round
career opportunities for local residents”.
https://strongsmarine.com/assets/images/pdf/4.6.22%20SYC%20building%20project%20fact%20sheet.pdf. This is another
example of misinformation that has been presented to community by the Applicant.
15 THE MEIC requires only gross annual revenues, year of data, and region/state selected from a pull-down menu.
16 Direct jobs are positions created directly through operation of a business. These jobs can be counted easily because they are
actual positions filled by actual people. Indirect jobs are those created as a result of the business’ spending on goods and
services, and induced jobs are created by the spending of the business’ employees within the region. Construction jobs may
be treated as direct jobs if the period of employment exceeds two years—which is not the case for the proposed Project.
17 This fact is noted in endnotes to tables in Appendix E.
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The MEIC model is based on information from 42 commercial marinas in the U.S., spread over seven
regions of the U.S. (Atlantic-North, Atlantic-South, Gulf of Mexico, Great Lakes, Pacific-North, Pacific-
South, and Central). Only four of these marinas are located in the Northeast. It is clear from the MEIC-
generated data reproduced in Appendix E that SYC is atypical when compared to the marinas used to
create the MEIC model. As presented in Appendix E, and repeated in DEIS Table 48, in 2020 SYC
generated 85.72% of its revenues from boat sales, 0.92% from fuel sales, 0% from the lease revenue and
0% from the “all other” category. These figures are significantly different from the regional revenue
percentages of 4.8%, 18%, 13.3% and 45.8% respectively, used by the MEIC to construct the algorithm
used to generate its calculations.
The economic multipliers used by the MEIC to calculate indirect and induced job numbers, state and
local tax impacts, and federal tax impacts are all based on how revenues are distributed between nine
activity categories.18 The atypical distribution of revenue sources for SYC, compared to all the marinas
used to generate the economic multipliers employed by the MEIC, strongly suggest that the data
derived from the MEIC to evaluate the Project’s economic impact may be seriously flawed and
inaccurate to an unknown degree. The portions of the economic impact analysis in the DEIS that are
based on information derived from the MEIC should not be uncritically accepted by the Planning Board.
The DEIS states that “The proposed action is expected to generate approximately 11 new full-time jobs
for servicing of the boats in storage, most of which are expected to be local residents experienced in the
maritime industry. There is a resultant beneficial impact of additional employment and wages for the
local population” (p.312). No basis for the claim that new jobs would be filled by “local” residents is
presented in the DEIS. The DEIS also provides no definition of who it defines as a “local resident.” This is
significant as jobs filled by non-Southold residents will provide little in the way of economic benefits to
the Town of Southold.
The DEIS does not indicate if newly created positions will be filled immediately, or over a potentially
much longer unspecified period of time. This is of special concern as the Applicant has indicated that
the two proposed storage buildings may not be constructed at the same time.
According to the DEIS (p.15), the “types of jobs to be created include boat maintenance, machinery
operators, engine technicians, wood and fiberglass re-finishing personnel, and administration. The salary
ranges for the new full-time positions could be expected from approximately $50,000 to $125,000”, but
does not provide a more detailed breakdown. This information is not responsive to the DEIS scope
requirement that the DEIS include information “by job description, salary benefit levels, etc.” This
suggests that newly created jobs may be filled by non-Southold residents. These employees are unlikely
to relocate to Southold, as many of the jobs will fall within the income limits that would qualify the
employee for affordable housing. The need for affordable housing for employees in the Southold
18 In addition to the boat sales, fuel sales, lease revenue, and “all other” categories, the MEIC employs revenue figures from
merchandise sales, boat rentals, and food and beverage services as separate activity categories.
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maritime industry has been of special concern to Town residents.19 The Project is likely to exacerbate
the already significant demand for affordable/workforce housing in Southold.
19 “Town seeks community input on affordable housing,” Suffolk Times, January 17, 2023; “Southold Town Board votes to put
affordable housing tax on November ballot as it works out plan,” Suffolk Times August 3, 2022; “The North Fork’s affordable
housing ‘crisis’ has reached new extremes,” Suffolk Times March 10, 2022.
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COMMMENT FIGURE ECONOMICS -1
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COMMENT FIGURE ECONOMICS – 2