The now-abandoned Oval Wood Dish factory is seen in May 2024 in Tupper Lake. (Enterprise — Chris Gaige)

TUPPER LAKE — The Oval Wood Dish factory, a long-vacant behemoth of a building on Demars Boulevard, looms large over Tupper Lake.

For the last several years, there has been much talk, considerable sums of grant money and community hope all put toward potentially redeveloping the currently 124,647 square feet of vacant industrial space into 80 affordable housing units, along with viable co-working and commercial space at the property.

Optimism notwithstanding, progress has been largely stagnant.

A potential catalyzer, however, is slated for this evening.

The Franklin County Industrial Development Agency will hold a public hearing at 6 p.m. today in the Community Room at the Tupper Lake Emergency Services Building for a PILOT proposal from the OWD’s current owner, and prospective developer.

The current owner, doing business as Oval Wood Dish Tupper Lake, LLC, is the Syracuse-based Lahinch Group. The company bought the property in 2021, and after years of planning, appeared poised to begin the development last spring, though it never came to fruition.

A PILOT, or payment in lieu of taxes, is a negotiated local tax break, where the property owner pays an agreed-upon annual sum for a certain number of years instead of the property’s full assessed value. The agreed upon payment, while unique to each PILOT, is a discounted price compared to the full taxable value in exchange for a project having an ostensible benefit to the community.

In this case, that would be the many units of affordable housing, which would be deed restricted and set to varying thresholds of the area median income. It’s a middle-ground of sorts between public and traditional housing, and is meant to provide living space for essential, middle-income jobs like teachers, law enforcement and nurses.

While the benefit of a redeveloped OWD is apparent, some local leaders have expressed concerns that the cost of PILOTs — through sapping tax revenue that would otherwise flow into village and town coffers — can outweigh their good, especially in a community as financially strained as Tupper Lake.

The OWD property’s full market value is currently $1,129,000, since it’s assessed at $677,400 and the town’s equalization rate is 60%. Ahead of the public hearing, the Franklin County IDA posted a cost benefit analysis of the proposed PILOT. That is available at tinyurl.com/3hm7p7fu. It finds that over the 20 year agreement, there would be $615,357 less paid in taxes.

Though it’s an average of $30,767.85 per year, the way the fixed payment schedule is structured, it would start off with a greater difference — meaning a bigger tax discount — with the fixed payments growing at an annual faster rate than estimated taxes, closing the gap from an approximately $40,975 shortfall at the start to $21,598 in its last year.

Collecting public sentiment on whether the planned 80 units of affordable housing is worth the lost tax money for Tupper Lake will play a pivotal role in determining whether the Franklin County IDA moves forward with the PILOT.

Written comments can be emailed to Franklin County IDA CEO Jeremy Evans at jeremy@adirondackfrontier.com or mailed to Jeremy Evans, AICP, Chief Executive Officer, County of Franklin IDA, 360 West Main Street, Malone, New York 12953.

People can also attend today’s public hearing remotely, via Zoom, at tinyurl.com/mpunh8aj.