Long Island Real Estate Briefs: December 13, 2002

Long Island Business News, Dec 13, 2002 by Nick Anastasi

Melville-based Reckson Associates Realty Corp. recently paid homage to the local real estate brokers helped pull in the biggest leases for the real estate investment trust's industrial and office portfolios in 2002.

The awards were presented at Reckson's annual holiday gathering, held this year at the Cradle of Aviation Museum in Mitchel Field.

Of this year's honorees, Ashlind Properties' Richard Cohen was given the industrial award for bringing three tenants, which leased a combined 373,000 square feet of space in Reckson's industrial portfolio.

Those deals include ELM Freight's lease of 89 Nicon Court, a 104,000-square-foot facility, and South Shore Packaging's lease of 110 Plant Ave., which measures 125,000 square feet. Both sites are located in Hauppauge.

On the office side, Sutton & Edwards' Eric Launer was recognized for brokering a lease for 40,000 square feet at 100 Engineers Drive Hauppauge with Metro One, a telecommunications company. As a result of the deal, Reckson converted the space from industrial to a combination of office and research and development space.

Reckson's "Deal of the Year," went to CB Richard Ellis' Bob Godfrey, who was honored for brokering a lease for 57,000 square feet at Reckson's 400 Moreland Road in Commack for Forest Labs' worldwide information technology center. The lease also required Reckson to convert the site from industrial to office to meet Forest's space requirement.

Overall on Long Island, Reckson said it leased more than 892,000 square feet of industrial space and 384,000 square feet of office space in 2002.

Reckson co-President Mitchell Rechler said on the whole, the performance of its portfolio in 2002 exceeded expectations.

Vertical Line expands its operations in Calverton

Vertical Line Productions has acquired a 23,000-square-foot industrial building on 10 acres of land along Grumman Boulevard at the Enterprise Park at Calverton, near the company's headquarters.

Douglas Dey, CEO of Vertical Line, said that the company purchased the facility to expand the warehousing and shipping operations for its line of designer sportswear.

"This facility is a former hangar with a 30-foot high ceiling that once stored F-14 fighter planes," said Jack O'Connor of Grubb & Ellis, which has the exclusive rights to market EPCAL. "The tract of land associated with this structure allows Vertical Line additional future expansion of 10,000 square feet." O'Connor represented both the buyer and the seller, developer Jan Burman, in the transaction.

Cleva Philips involved in three deals

Cleva Philips Real Estate Services has closed on three transactions.

The first is a 500,000 lease in Woodbridge, N.J. where representatives of Jericho-based Cleva Philips helped negotiate terms with Mack Cali Real Estate that allowed Woodbury-based Seaman's Furniture to pull out of its lease for the space owned by Mack-Cali. The space has since been leased to Snapple.

Cleva Philips also played a role in the leasing of 25,000 square feet of industrial space at 3000 Lawson Blvd. in Oceanside to CBEO, a seller of office machinery. In that deal, Cleva represented CBEO. Amos Brotter, of Great Neck-based Douglas Payton, represented the owner of the building, Russell Industries.

In Smithtown, Damianos Sports Inc. acquired two acres of land along Route 25 from Great Neck-based SMA Realty. In that transaction, Cleva Philips Bill Kerr represented both parties.

RES closes on two deals

In Melville, the Bethpage Federal Credit Union has signed a lease for more than 24,000 square feet of office space owned by We're Associates at 2 Huntington Quadrangle.

Representing Bethpage were Bob Rosenbluth and Jerry Krush of Jericho-based Real Estate Strategies while Tony Fromer, of We're, represented the facility.

Bethpage will use the space for back office operations.

In Jericho, RES renegotiated a 60,000-square-foot lease for the New York College Health Professionals at 6800 Jericho Turnpike. In that deal, RES' Robert Guido, Robin Miller and Rosenbluth represented the school. Jefrey Rosmarin, owner of the 6800 building, represented the space.

Insignia/ESG's Heilpern promoted

Philip Heilpern has been promoted to serve as managing director of Insignia/ESG.

Heilpern, who has been involved in the real estate game for some 17 years, joined the firm in 1998 as a director.

Prior to joining Insignia, Heilpern was a vice president at Long Island office of CB Richard Ellis in Garden City.

Currently, Heilpern is managing the sale-leaseback transactions on behalf of Northrop Grumman - 385,000 square feet in Bethpage - and EDO Corp. - 725,000 square feet in Deer Park.