Suffolk Retires H. Lee Dennison Debt

Suffolk officials gathered in Hauppauge last week to rip up the lien on the H. Lee Dennison Building, which had been mortgaged by County Executive Steve Bellone back in 2013 to raise funds for the cash-strapped county. Riding on a $500 million wave of federal COVID cash and higher-than-expected sales tax revenue, Bellone announced that the debt was retired 10 years in advance.

Coming into office with the county in terrible fiscal shape, Bellone reaped about $69 million by selling the 12-story building to the county’s Judicial Facilities Agency, which sold bonds to finance the debt.

“I'm proud to say all these years later that we have solved this financial crisis while keeping our commitment to the taxpayers,” Bellone said at a press conference in the lobby of the building that houses his office. “We had to stop the hole from getting any deeper so that we could start the process of climbing out.” Bellone and other county leaders ceremoniously removed the plaque that identified the judicial agency as the building’s owner.

H. Lee Dennison building File Photo

While the county saved $12 million in interest by paying off the debt early, it shelled out a total of $95 million to earn back its building, Suffolk officials noted. “We paid dearly for it in interest,” stated John Kennedy, the county comptroller, who voted for the deal when he was a Suffolk legislator. The building was named for Dennison, who was Suffolk’s first executive back in 1960.