Bill Fioravanti, Chief Executive Officer of the Orange County Industrial Development Agency, announced the amended application for financial assistance by Amazon Services LLC and Scannell Properties #600 LLC for the $607-million project at the IDA’s Board of Directors meeting on Aug. 19 at the IDA’s offices in New Windsor, NY.

In an Aug. 18 letter to the Orange County IDA, Robert G. Murray, an attorney with Harris Beach Murtha of Buffalo, NY, representing Amazon/Scannell, submitted the amended IDA application, which is the second revision of its original application for a 20-year PILOT request on March 21, 2025. Amazon/Scannell issued its first amended application, seeking a 15-year PILOT worth approximately $80 million, on Sept. 23, 2025.

That proposal was eventually approved by the Orange County IDA, including $31,008,750 in sales and use tax exemptions. However, State-appointed IDA Monitor Brian Sanvidge issued a “Notice of Violation,” thereby vetoing the IDA vote on the incentives in late November 2025.

Since then, the project has been in limbo, mired in litigation, with a judge upholding the IDA monitor’s veto of incentives, but another court upholding the Wawayanda Planning Board’s approval of a needed height variance and site plan approval, among a host of court actions pertaining to the project.

Mr. Murray stated in the letter to the IDA that the 10-year PILOT “will deliver positive impacts to the Town of Wawayanda and Orange County,” including approximately $10 million more in projected tax payments than the previous 15-year PILOT proposal.

He noted that the 10-year PILOT would generate more than $32 million in tax payments than its original 20-year PILOT proposal.

According to figures supplied by the Orange County IDA, the total incentive package to Scannell/Amazon from the 10-year PILOT is $69,707,010.88. Over the 10-year term, the PILOT will generate $11,209,389 in revenue for Minisink Valley School District and $5,431,119 for ambulance and fire services. Once the PILOT expires, Minisink Valley Schools will receive $7.76 million in property tax revenue from Amazon in Year 11 alone.

The IDA has since revised the value of the 10-year PILOT to $69,598,263.

The Orange County IDA held a public hearing on the new 10-year PILOT on Sept. 10 at Minisink Middle School. A vote on the PILOT by the Orange County IDA Board could take place later in the month.

The controversial project proposed is considered to be among the largest-ever private investment projects in Orange County. The plan calls for the construction of a five-story Amazon robotic fulfillment/distribution center at 22 McBride Road in Slate Hill. Each floor (two below grade and three above grade) would total approximately 600,000 square feet.

L. Todd Dioro, president of the Hudson Valley Building and Construction Trades Council, told CONSTRUCTION NEWS that negotiations are ongoing on a possible Project Labor Agreement but noted that he fully expects the project to be built predominantly by union workers. The building trades have supported the project throughout the approval process.

The project will create approximately 2,427 total jobs, including 750 full-time jobs within three years of completion and up to 630 direct construction jobs and another 770 indirect construction jobs, according to a third-party economic impact study. Under a new state law, any project that receives a PILOT from an industrial development agency in Orange County must pay prevailing wage or enter into a Project Labor Agreement with the Hudson Valley Building & Construction Trades Council.

While IDA approval of the revised 10-year PILOT is not assured, one of the project’s most high-profile and vociferous opponents—New York State Senator James Skoufis—has softened his position on the project now that the incentive package has been reduced.

In a Facebook posting hours before the IDA public hearing on Sept. 10, Sen. Skoufis still complained about granting incentives to Amazon, stating: “To be perfectly clear, Amazon doesn’t need or deserve a single penny of incentives. Unfortunately, neither the federal nor state government has done the right thing and prohibited property tax breaks for warehouse projects like this one. Until then, we live in an environment whereby large companies can come into communities, make demands, and threaten to take construction and post-construction jobs elsewhere to other communities that give them what they want.”

“In recent weeks, we were finally successful in driving Amazon back to the negotiating table,” Sen. Skoufis said in his Facebook post. “The end result is a major improvement, extracting $30+ million in additional payments from Amazon to our community from what they tried to get away with—and they will pay full property taxes 10 years sooner than Amazon initially sought. This is more money to our school district, local infrastructure, and law enforcement—funding that local taxpayers would’ve had to make up if not for our relentless efforts.”

He also stated that Amazon will enter into a Project Labor Agreement with the Hudson Valley Building Trades. At press time, terms of the PLA were still being negotiated, according to several officers of the Hudson Valley Building Trades. Sen. Skoufis concluded his social media statement by noting that the IDA will soon be voting on an amendment to its policies that would prohibit the IDA from offering any PILOT tax breaks to any warehouse moving forward.

While some local residents continued to voice opposition to the project, a host of business and building trades officials testified at the public hearing in support of the project, including Sam Fratto, Business Manager of IBEW Local 363 of Wallkill, NY, and Vice President of the Hudson Valley Building Trades; Matthew Stoddard, Business Manager of Ironworkers Local 417 in Wallkill, NY, and Recording Secretary of the Hudson Valley Building Trades; Conor Eckert, President and CEO of the Orange County Partnership; Lucas Irace, Director of Business Attraction & Development for the Orange County Partnership; and Dan Depew, CEO and Executive Director of the Construction Contractors Association of the Hudson Valley of Newburgh, NY.