Chautauqua County has agreed to increase sales tax exemptions for two solar projects currently under construction.

During the recent county Industrial Development Agency meeting, board members were informed that two solar projects in the northern end of the county have been sold. One solar project is on Farel Road in the town of Pomfret and the other is on Hanover Road, Forestville.

According to Kristine Morabito with the county IDA, Luminace Sunbeam Development Holdings, LLC purchased both solar projects from RIC Development.

RIC Development had a Payment In Lieu Of Taxes agreement with the county IDA.

Morabito said the Forestville project is expected to be completed in December while the Pomfret project is expected to be completed in March.

Morabito noted construction costs have increased substantially more than originally predicted.

She said the Pomfret construction was originally budgeted to cost $5,638,500 in 2022 but is now expected to cost $11,550,000 million.

As a result, Luminace has requested the sales tax exemption be increased from $255,189 to $418,555.

“For clarification, the request pertains strictly to the state and county exemption authorization, not to the PILOT payments in the executed PILOT agreement that are distributed to the taxing jurisdictions including the town, school and county. There is no change to the PILOT,” Morabito said.

Attorney Milan Tyler with the county IDA noted the project itself has not changed. “I would emphasize this is the exact same project that the board approved previously. It’s just that the costs have gone up which means more investment in the county and the company is asking for this increase in sales tax,” he said.

For the Forestville project, Morabito said the projected costs increased from $6,550,250, as predicted in 2022, to $18,178,181 now.

Because of this increase, Luminace requested the sales tax exemption for that project be increased from $296,400 to $415,205.

Like the Pomfret project, there are no changes made regarding PILOT payments.

Both requests were unanimously approved.