Southampton committee adopts redevelopment-area bond for Dermody Warehouse project

Mayor Ronald Heston presided as the Southampton Township Committee voted May 20 to adopt Ordinance 2025-06, authorizing the issuance of a redevelopment-area bond for infrastructure tied to the Dermody Warehouse Redevelopment Project.

Township Administrator Brandon Umba summarized the ordinance, saying the payment-in-lieu-of-taxes (PILOT) law requires a redevelopment-area bond for public infrastructure and that the RAB would finance basin construction and water infrastructure for the project. He said the township itself will not bond or directly fund the work. Deputy Mayor Elizabeth Rossell noted the warehouse footprint is 277,550 square feet during the public hearing; no members of the public offered comment.

Deputy Mayor Rossell moved to approve Ordinance 2025-06 on second reading; Committeeman Arnold Harrison seconded. At the roll call, Committeeman Harrison, Committeeman William Raftery, Deputy Mayor Rossell, Committeeman James Young and Mayor Heston all voted in the affirmative and the ordinance was adopted.

The ordinance authorizes issuance of non-recourse redevelopment-area bonds “in an aggregate principal amount not to exceed $25,000” for the Dermody Warehouse Redevelopment Project to cover required public-infrastructure components tied to the PILOT arrangement. Administrator Umba described the RAB as a financing mechanism required by the governing PILOT statute; he emphasized the Township is not directly underwriting the project.

The adoption completes the ordinance’s second-reading requirement; the Committee did not set further public hearings and took no additional action at the meeting.