Pall Corp. cuts its Port Washington workforce, must repay $239,000 in tax breaks
Pall Corp. expects to have about 100 employees in its Port Washington headquarters by year-end, company officials said. Credit: Newsday/James T. Madore
Pall Corp., once one of Long Island’s most prominent public companies, has cut its workforce by more than 65%, and must repay tens of thousands of dollars in tax breaks that it received, officials said.
The manufacturer of filtration, separation and purification products now employs 77 people at its headquarters and research and development center in Port Washington, down from 225 in 2017 and 522 in 2007.
Executives said the job cuts were the result of work being transferred to other states and countries by parent, Danaher Corp., of Washington, D.C., which purchased Pall in 2015.
"Starting in late 2022 through May 2023, [Pall] was subject to a corporate reorganization that involved the divestiture of a significant portion of its business to a sister company within the Danaher group: Cytiva," Chi Lam, Pall’s interim general counsel, wrote in an Aug. 6 letter to the Nassau County Industrial Development Agency.
"This reorganization ... resulted in a majority of the company’s [employees in Port Washington] being assigned to Cytiva," he said in the letter obtained by Newsday via the state’s Freedom of Information Law.
That caused Pall to fall out of compliance with the 2017 IDA tax-break agreement, which calls for a minimum of 225 employees at all times in return for 15 years of tax savings. The noncompliance was discovered by the IDA in its yearly state-mandated review of employment levels at companies receiving tax incentives.
The agency voted to claw back the $239,073 in tax breaks that Pall has gotten so far under the agreement, which ends in 2033. The agency also lowered the company’s job commitment to a minimum of 90 jobs at all times going forward.
Records show Pall employees earn, on average, $100,000 per year.
The tax breaks were granted seven years ago to keep Pall in Nassau after it sold the 25 Harbor Park Dr. headquarters to Kiss Nail Products Inc. and then leased back 38% of the space. Kiss also received tax aid at the time to support the $37.5 million transaction.
At the Aug. 15 IDA meeting, Lam, the Pall attorney, said the company had added 12 jobs since January and expected to have about 100 employees in Port Washington by the end of this year.
"We remain a very viable business and one of Danaher’s largest businesses overall," he said. "We will continue to maintain 25 Harbor Park Drive as our corporate headquarters."
Lam also said Pall was making $160,000 in renovations to its space in the building, with an additional $4 million planned for laboratories in the next three years "as we rebuild our industrial business." He said research jobs in other states would be moved to Port Washington.
Lam added that Pall employees would return to the office full time by January when the company ends remote work.
Sheldon L. Shrenkel, the IDA’s CEO and executive director, said Pall’s job cuts were regrettable, but the company has agreed to the "recapture" of past tax breaks and "its senior officers will still be in Port Washington at the corporate headquarters."
Pall Corp., once one of Long Island’s most prominent public companies, has cut its workforce by more than 65%, and must repay tens of thousands of dollars in tax breaks that it received, officials said.
The manufacturer of filtration, separation and purification products now employs 77 people at its headquarters and research and development center in Port Washington, down from 225 in 2017 and 522 in 2007.
Executives said the job cuts were the result of work being transferred to other states and countries by parent, Danaher Corp., of Washington, D.C., which purchased Pall in 2015.
"Starting in late 2022 through May 2023, [Pall] was subject to a corporate reorganization that involved the divestiture of a significant portion of its business to a sister company within the Danaher group: Cytiva," Chi Lam, Pall’s interim general counsel, wrote in an Aug. 6 letter to the Nassau County Industrial Development Agency.
"This reorganization ... resulted in a majority of the company’s [employees in Port Washington] being assigned to Cytiva," he said in the letter obtained by Newsday via the state’s Freedom of Information Law.
That caused Pall to fall out of compliance with the 2017 IDA tax-break agreement, which calls for a minimum of 225 employees at all times in return for 15 years of tax savings. The noncompliance was discovered by the IDA in its yearly state-mandated review of employment levels at companies receiving tax incentives.
The agency voted to claw back the $239,073 in tax breaks that Pall has gotten so far under the agreement, which ends in 2033. The agency also lowered the company’s job commitment to a minimum of 90 jobs at all times going forward.
Records show Pall employees earn, on average, $100,000 per year.
The tax breaks were granted seven years ago to keep Pall in Nassau after it sold the 25 Harbor Park Dr. headquarters to Kiss Nail Products Inc. and then leased back 38% of the space. Kiss also received tax aid at the time to support the $37.5 million transaction.
At the Aug. 15 IDA meeting, Lam, the Pall attorney, said the company had added 12 jobs since January and expected to have about 100 employees in Port Washington by the end of this year.
"We remain a very viable business and one of Danaher’s largest businesses overall," he said. "We will continue to maintain 25 Harbor Park Drive as our corporate headquarters."
Lam also said Pall was making $160,000 in renovations to its space in the building, with an additional $4 million planned for laboratories in the next three years "as we rebuild our industrial business." He said research jobs in other states would be moved to Port Washington.
Lam added that Pall employees would return to the office full time by January when the company ends remote work.
Sheldon L. Shrenkel, the IDA’s CEO and executive director, said Pall’s job cuts were regrettable, but the company has agreed to the "recapture" of past tax breaks and "its senior officers will still be in Port Washington at the corporate headquarters."
James T. Madore writes about Long Island business news including the economy, development, and the relationship between government and business. He previously served as Albany bureau chief.
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