Broadridge Financial Solutions wins preliminary OK for $17 million in Suffolk IDA tax breaks

Suffolk County on Thursday offered Broadridge Financial Solutions Inc. nearly $17 million in tax breaks over 12 years to retain its operations in Edgewood instead of moving some work and jobs out of state.

The county’s Industrial Development Agency voted unanimously to grant preliminary approval for the incentive package, which is in response to the public company's request for more aid as it weighs whether to renew leases on 722,400 square feet in two buildings.

Broadridge is among Long Island's largest employers with more than 1,500 people working at four buildings in Edgewood and the headquarters in Lake Success. The company also has an office in Manhattan and facilities in other states and countries, with a total workforce of more than 14,000 people.

"This project is about saving 1,500 jobs in Suffolk County with an investment of over $90 million," said Sarah Lansdale, IDA board chair and the county’s economic development commissioner, in calling for a vote Thursday on the tax breaks.

If the incentive package wins final board approval and is accepted by Broadridge, then $91 million will be spent on improvements to 51 Mercedes Way and 1155 Long Island Ave., both in Islip Town's Edgewood neighborhood, officials said.

The company also would maintain the 1,531 jobs in the two buildings, which pay $111,353 per year, on average.

Broadridge serves as Wall Street’s back office, delivering more than 7 billion documents to shareholders each year and processing trillions of dollars in stock trades each day. Securities filings show the company reported a profit of $839.5 million for the year ended June 30 on revenue of $6.9 billion.

In the application for IDA assistance, Frederic Khalil, Broadridge’s chief procurement and real estate officer, wrote that  the company is considering closing one of the Edgewood buildings and the Lake Success headquarters to reduce costs. He said the work would be transferred to other facilities in California, Connecticut, Florida, Tennessee and Texas.

If the cost-saving plan were implemented, Broadridge’s workforce of 2,300 people in New York State would shrink by about 1,500 people to about 750. The company also would save between $250 million and $270 million over 10 years, the application states.

During Thursday’s IDA meeting, Steve Cirami, general manager of US proxy, corporate actions and global class actions at Broadridge, said the company has made no decision about whether to reduce its Long Island presence. Broadridge was started in 1987 in an East Northport house.

“As part of our fiduciary responsibilities as a public company, to our [employees] and to our investors, we do need to look at alternatives when our leases come due to make sure that [renewing leases is] financially responsible and feasible for the company,” Cirami said.

Asked if Broadridge's Long Island employees should be worried about layoffs, company spokesman Gregg L. Rosenberg told Newsday, “No decisions regarding a potential move to another location have been made at this time. Any such move would be implemented over a multi-year timeframe,” he said.

Suffolk’s incentive package consists of: a sales-tax exemption of up to $6 million — of which $2.3 million has already been used — on the purchase of construction materials and equipment, plus property tax savings of $10.7 million over a dozen years. The latter could be extended by three years under certain circumstances.

Kelly Murphy, the IDA’s CEO and executive director, said the proposed tax savings plan would replace a 15-year plan of which only eight years have been used.

She said Broadridge employed 168 jobs in the two Edgewood buildings when it first sought IDA assistance in 1997. The buildings now have more than 1,500 workers.

Broadridge “could absolutely operate anywhere else in the country, but we want them to stay in Suffolk County because of the jobs, the spending and the overall positive impact on the economy,” Murphy said in an interview.

Besides the Suffolk IDA, Broadridge has or will be seeking help from New York State and the Islip Town IDA, said the company’s real estate attorney Peter L. Curry.

Talks with Empire State Development, the state’s primary business-aid agency, “are ongoing,” said agency spokeswoman Emily Mijatovic.

The Islip IDA “has not received an application for assistance from Broadridge…[but] would be supportive,” town spokeswoman Caroline Smith said on Monday.