Riverhead residents and East End environmentalists called attention to the significance of preserving the natural resources of Enterprise Park at Calverton (EPCAL) during the second annual Earth Day EPCAL Walk on Saturday, April 27.

Sponsored by the civic group EPCAL Watch, which monitors changes at the property, the EPCAL Walk had more than 60 people show up amidst the finalization of a $40 million land deal at the property with venture group Calverton Aviation and Technology (CAT).  A little over 600 acres were originally being sold, but 1,000 acres were added to the contract at no additional cost.

CAT has until May 20 to decide if it will be moving forward with the purchase of 1,644 acres of land from Riverhead Town for $40 million.

“It’s the last bit of untouched Long Island, in the sense of being like this perfect ecosystem,”  Christie Hawkins, member of EPCAL watch, said. “It has kettle hole ponds, vernal ponds, turtles frogs, salamanders, and flying squirrels. There’s an excellent balance there and that’s why we know that the 1000 acres should not be touched.”

Originally, when the property was proposed for sale, the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) only allowed about 600 acres of the EPCAL site to be developed. But when Luminati Aerospace, currently a 25 percent shareholder of CAT with Triple Five Group owning three quarters of the entity, proposed buying the land with a promise to develop Calverton Aviation Technology park, then-supervisor Sean Walter sold 1,644 acres of undeveloped land that the town still owned.

“There are concerns about the viability of the contract,” Hawkins said. “It should have gone through the process of being voted on and approved especially because of the environmental impact review that said people were against that.”

Two of the three Republicans on the Riverhead town board last year voted against the land deal with Luminati. They have now changed their positions.  Councilwoman Jodi Giglio did so after she had a private meeting in N.Y. with the Ghermezians family, owners of Triple Five, in the middle of the qualified and eligible process before the final vote on the deal. Some residents of the town took that to the town ethics board.

“I voted no for the contract when it was just Daniel Preston and Luminati because I felt he needed a management team around him to help him,” Giglio said. “When I found out that he was partnering with Triple Five to formulate powered aviation and technology, I was excited about that. There is a company called Launcher that CAT will be working with to design a smaller satellite that doesn’t cost as much to provide internet connectivity.”

Those who are for the land deal mostly want to see an economic growth opportunity in Riverhead.

“The sense I get is some would just want it (EPCAL LAND) left as is,” former Riverhead GOP chairman Mason Haas said. “However putting this parcel back on the tax rolls would generate over $4.3 million of tax revenue from property taxes only, and that is on the vacant land.”

Luminati Aviation partnered with Triple Five in the $40 million purchase under a new entity called CAT in 2018 after Daniel Preston, CEO of Luminati Aerospace, was $46,000 in debt in the land deal to the Town of Riverhead, according to Long Island Business News Report. Triple Five Group agreed to cover more than $46,000 of its partner’s debt.  

Daniel Preston told a local news site that he will be the landowner and investor on the EPCAL property in Calverton, but he is two feet out the door and does not really enjoy being there.

In light of a recent $10 million lawsuit against Luminati Aerospace by technological company Hexcel Corporation, who made a $10 million loan to Luminati Aerospace in 2016, Riverhead officials are trying to hire an attorney with no ties to the deal to review Luminati’s role in the purchase of the Enterprise Park.

“I fear that as dollars and responsibility are scaled up by orders of magnitude with an EPCAL sale, the problems and their consequences for the town will ratchet up in lockstep,” Larry Simms,  former member of the Riverhead Industrial Development Agency,  said in a town hall meeting regarding the EPCAL land deal.

The town board and Riverhead officials have not yet decided whether a new, outside legal counsel for the EPCAL land deal is needed. They are also undecided on which lawyer to ask for a second opinion on the status of the town’s contract with CAT. The viability of the contract is in question given the legal status quo of Luminati Aerospace.

“The Jermasians [owner of Triple Five Group] just paid their debts. They obviously want to pretend he’s [Daniel Preston] still viable in some way,” John McAuliff, a Riverhead resident and EPCAL watch member, said. “Dan Preston, he is everything of Luminati. He turns out to be a total fraud, and because of that, the question is whether the town can break the contract.”

Being the largest undeveloped tract left on Long Island, EPCAL is populated by rare plants and animals such as rose coreopsis, slender pinweeds, endangered tiger salamander and short-eared owl throughout the 2,900-acre property. As nowhere else on the island, mature, diversified stands of trees, wetland areas, & grasslands are  also present.

“Because on Long Island and beyond we have already depleted and destroyed many unique ecosystems, it is now quite vital to maintain those that still exist, and restore others,” Jase E. Bernhardt, assistant professor of geology, environment, and sustainability at Hofstra University said. “This could run counter to the goals of a business.”

Depending on the company involved and how exactly they plan to use the land, air and water pollution and loss of habitat space could occur, Bernhardt said.

Hundreds of people use the fairly new nine mile bike trail on the weekend from all over the place, Hawkins said.

“When you tell people that are riding their bikes around this incredible property that this may all be gone, people are devastated and they cant believe that our town would make this kind of decision.” Hawkins said. “They’re just getting used to the fact that this path is here and available. It’s unique and I think it puts Riverhead on the map in a special way.”

Riverhead started working on the bike trail in 2008 with the aid of state grant funding, including  $100,000 in grant funding from the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation.

“If we don’t protect more of this parcel we call EPCAL, as you enter our town from the west on Route 25; ‘Welcome to Riverhead’ will mean viewing the backs of industrial buildings and their dumpsters,” Steve Khul, a bike path advocate, said. “Let’s think this one out, this deal needs a better plan.”

As the deadline approaches, stakes are high for residents and environmentalists who want EPCAL protected and preserved.

“At this point there is nothing that the town can actually do,” John Marafino, councilman of Riverhead, said. “Our hands are kind of tied with the contract that was signed into with the developer prior to the current supervisor being in office.”

Officials from Triple Five Group and Luminati Aerospace could not be reached for comment.