Vestal Fights Big Tax Break for Parkway Luxury Apartment Complex

Vestal officials are expressing strong opposition to a long-term tax reduction plan for a massive luxury apartment complex to be built near the Binghamton University campus.

The five-story, 310-unit building is to be constructed on the site of the Quality Inn and Fuji San Japanese restaurant on the Vestal Parkway East at Bunn Hill Road.

Town supervisor Maria Sexton said she and a Vestal School District representative spoke against a payment-in-lieu-of-taxes proposal for the big project.

The Broome County Industrial Development Agency is scheduled to consider the tax break at a meeting Wednesday afternoon.

The Fuji San Japanese restaurant is located at the Quality Inn hotel complex across from the Binghamton University campus in Vestal. (Photo: Bob Joseph/WNBF News)

Sexton said the tax break package would run for a period of 22 years. She said the developers of the residential and commercial project will have a "very profitable venture" shortly after construction is completed.

The supervisor said while the town board is not against the project, it is "absolutely opposed" to the planned tax breaks.

Sexton said if the IDA approves the proposal, Vestal residents and business owners will wind up with higher tax payments. She said the town board believes that is "unacceptable."

Rooms on the east side of the Quality Inn property near Route 201 and the Vestal Parkway on March 18, 2025. (Photo: Bob Joseph/WNBF News)

The supervisor said the project developer doesn't need the tax breaks for what would be a profitable complex.

Only two years ago, the owner of the Quality Inn property insisted the site was not for sale.

A Connecticut company paid $4.6 million in September 2019 for the property. Jay Shah, a representative of the firm that acquired the site, told WIVT-TV in February 2023 the property was not for sale.

Enter your number to get our free mobile app

Contact WNBF News reporter Bob Joseph: bob@wnbf.com or call (607) 545-2250. For breaking news and updates on developing stories, follow @BinghamtonNow on Twitter.

LOOK: Stunning, historic hotels from every state and the stories behind them

Stacker curated this list of stunning, historic hotels from every state. To be considered for inclusion, the structure must be more than 50 years old. Many of the selected hotels are listed on the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and several are purported to be haunted.

Gallery Credit: Erin Joslyn

LOOK: Best Beers From Every State

To find the best beer in each state and Washington D.C., Stacker analyzed January 2020 data from BeerAdvocate, a website that gathers user scores for beer in real-time. BeerAdvocate makes its determinations by compiling consumer ratings for all 50 states and Washington D.C. and applying a weighted rank to each. The weighted rank pulls the beer toward the list's average based on the number of ratings it has and aims to allow lesser-known beers to increase in rank. Only beers with at least 10 rankings to be considered; we took it a step further to only include beers with at least 100 user rankings in our gallery. Keep reading to find out what the best beer is in each of the 50 states and Washington D.C.

Gallery Credit: Angela Underwood