ICE retracts statement about warehouse purchase

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said Wednesday morning it had not purchased the warehouse at 29 Elizabeth Drive in the Village of Chester, despite saying previously that it had.

“ICE has not purchased a facility in Chester, New York,” an ICE spokesperson told Straus News in a Feb. 18 email. “That [previous] statement was sent without proper approval and this mistake has since been rectified.”

Days earlier, on Friday, Feb. 13, an ICE spokesperson emailed Straus News and other news outlets saying the federal law enforcement agency had purchased the property. It read, in part:

“ICE purchased a facility in Chester, N.Y. These will be very well-structured detention facilities meeting our regular detention standards. Sites will undergo community impact studies and a rigorous due diligence process to make sure there is no hardship on local utilities or infrastructure prior to purchase.”

After receiving the Friday statement, Straus News requested clarification from ICE regarding any community impact studies that had taken place as local officials – from Village of Chester Mayor John Bell to Orange County Executive Steve Neuhaus – had repeatedly said infrastructure did not support an ICE facility in the Village of Chester. That request for clarification and a question about the purchase price went unanswered until Wednesday morning, when ICE said that no sale had taken place.

Reaction

When asked about the retraction, Bell and Town of Chester Supervisor Brandon Holdridge said there has been no communication from the federal government since The Washington Post reported in December that ICE was looking into the possibility of purchasing the warehouse property for the purpose of turning it into a holding center.

“From day one, none of us have heard anything from the Department of Homeland Security or ICE,” Bell said. “We see and read things in the media like everyone else.”

“The incompetence [from ICE] is beyond real and they clearly have no discipline,” Holdridge said.

Warehouse owner

The warehouse property in the Village of Warwick is owned by IEP Chester LLC, a subsidiary of Icahn Enterprises.

Founded by billionaire businessman and investor Carl Icahn, Icahn Enterprises L.P., according to its website, is a diversified holding company engaged in seven primary business segments: investment, energy, automotive, food packaging, real estate, home fashion and pharma.

IEP Chester LLC is a foreign limited liability company registered with the New York State Department of State. The corporation service company is registered at 80 State St. in Albany and was initially filed on Aug. 17, 2023, by Icahn Enterprises Director and Chief Financial Officer Ted Papapostolou.

The property – the site of a former Pep Boys warehouse – is listed on LoopNet.com as 401,746 square feet of 4-star industrial space built in 1999 on a 35.9-acre property with 52 loading docks. The rental rate is listed as $13 per square foot per year not including utilities, property expenses or building service.

Attempts to contact Papapostolou and property listing agent Jules Nissim of Cushman and Wakefield about the property have been unsuccessful.

Over the years, Icahn, 89, has donated to candidates of all political stripes – including President Trump and Sen. Chuck Schumer – with the majority of his donations having gone to Republicans, according to followthemoney.org. Icahn helped advise Trump on regulatory matters in 2017.

Background

As previously reported, a Jan. 8 “Notice of Activity” was posted on the Department of Homeland Security’s website. It reads, in part:

“ICE is proposing to purchase, occupy and rehabilitate a warehouse property at 29 Elizabeth Drive, Chester, N.Y. in support of ICE operations. Proposed site improvements may include, but are not limited to, internal structural changes, surface parking area modifications, installation of a small guard building (approximately 150 square feet), establishment of an outdoor recreation area, utility and stormwater improvements, and fence line modifications. No site improvements are expected to be taller than the existing structure or expand beyond the current site boundaries, and all work and construction staging will occur within the parcel boundary. The new and modified facilities would occupy approximately 35.9 acres of land within the Village of Chester in Orange County.”

The facility, according to The Washington Post, would be part of a larger plan to house 80,000 individuals in warehouses across the country.

On Jan. 16, the Village of Chester responded to the federal government’s Jan. 8 Notice of Activity with a 59-page document consisting of a letter from Mayor Bell followed by various exhibits outlining why the village believes ICE is precluded from opening a processing facility at the site at 29 Elizabeth Drive.