Cardinal Health seeks extended property tax breaks

Mar 10, 2010 — The Buffalo News

David Robinson

Mar. 10, 2010 (McClatchy-Tribune Regional News delivered by Newstex) -- Cardinal Health is seeking an extra five years of property tax breaks for its Depew distribution center as the company considers consolidating its three New York facilities.

Cardinal Health's 150,000-square-foot drug distribution center at 3356 Walden Ave. is the smallest of the company's facilities in the state, employing 71 workers who earn an average of more than $28,000 a year.

But in a cost-cutting effort, the company is thinking about closing at least one of its New York facilities, which include a 700,000-square-foot site in the Town of Montgomery in Orange County that is more than four times larger than the Depew site and a 206,000-square-foot facility in Syracuse.

Officials from the Lancaster Industrial Development Agency have offered to give Cardinal Health an additional five years of property tax cuts, worth nearly $370,000, reducing its tax bill by 50 percent over that time, said Nathan S. Neill, the IDA's attorney.

Paul Leone, a consultant to the Lancaster IDA, said Tuesday it is likely that Cardinal Health would close the Depew distribution center in the Walden Business Center unless the additional property tax breaks are granted.

IDA officials said they believe the additional tax breaks, which will be funneled through the building's owner, Uniland Development Co., will allow the Depew facility to remain open. The extended tax break will help make the Depew site cost-competitive with the other sites, IDA officials said.

"I think they're going to stay," said Lancaster Supervisor Robert Giza, who also is the IDA's chairman. "The deal is still sensitive."

The existing payment-in-lieu- of-taxes agreement on the building expires next year. The extension will keep the property, which now is taxed at 50 percent of its current assessment, at that level through 2016, Leone said. If Cardinal were to move out, the tax benefits could be transfered to another tenant in the building that meets the IDA's eligibility requirements.

Cardinal Health officials did not respond to a request to comment.

The IDA will hold a public hearing on the proposed extension of the property tax break at 4 p. m. April 8 in Lancaster Town Hall, 21 Central Ave.

drobinson@buffnews.com

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