Quality King Distributors to move operations closer to Brookhaven

Long Island Business News, Oct 29, 2004 by Nick Anastasi

Quality King Distributors, Long Island's largest private company, will take an incremental step next week toward moving its operations from Islip to the Town of Brookhaven.

The company, which distributes pharmaceutical, health and beauty products, is in contract to acquire 37 acres at a price of $165,000 an acre in the Brookhaven Industrial Park, where it plans to move its corporate headquarters and its warehouse and distribution operations, said Brookhaven Supervisor John Jay LaValle.

After a public hearing on its plans for the site, the company will head to Brookhaven Town Hall Nov. 4, where a date for a public hearing on the company's proposal for landscape variances for its project will be set. Why exactly the company needs the variance is unclear, but Brookhaven officials say it's related to the town's new commercial code, which went into effect in into effect in August 2003.

LaValle said he hopes Quality King will be given all the needed approvals to go ahead by the end of the year.

We expect it to move, said LaValle of the Quality King application.

Quality King COO Marc Garrett said the company had hoped to have a shovel in the ground in August. We know the town is trying to move on this, he said. We're hoping to get our building permits for Christmas.

Quality King has an estimated 1,400 employees and recorded sales of $2.5 billion in 2003. Its portfolio consists of about 650,000 square feet of largely industrial space.

In May, Garrett said the new facility is required to keep up with growing demand and increase efficiencies, and he noted that the company has been operating on a 24-hour basis due to its current space constraints at facilities in Ronkonkoma and Deer Park. Because of delays resulting from the town's new commercial building code, that trend continues.

The project, valued from $25 million to $30 million for construction costs alone, will be an economic coup for the town, which is pushing to get approvals in place by the end of the year.

At this point, we're in the final stages of the decision process, said Anthony Aloisio, director of economic development for Brookhaven. The town board has been supportive of the project.

If approved, he said the development could bring as many as 605 jobs to the town.

In May, Quality King had applied for an economic incentive package from the Town of Brookhaven's Industrial Development Agency, for which it has received preliminary approval, in conjunction with its plans to develop a 560,000-square-foot warehouse and distribution facility, Aloisio said.