In a testament to bad planning, a used-car lot sat for years next to the Long Island Rail Road station in Baldwin, Long Island. Even after a developer pitched apartments for the site, the project went unbuilt for more than a decade.

But finally, Breslin Realty is poised to deliver 215 units to the Nassau County hamlet.

The $100 million development is set for an environmental review beginning next month, Newsday reported. The project resurfaced at a Hempstead Town Board public hearing on Monday.

The transit-oriented rental development, The Grand at Baldwin, will be located south of Sunrise Highway between Grand and Harrison avenues. The site is adjacent to the hamlet’s Long Island Rail Road station, a mere 450-foot walk for future residents.

Breslin plans to build studio, one-bedroom and two-bedroom units with rents ranging from $2,550 to $3,500. Twenty-two one-bedroom apartments would have reduced rents for income-eligible tenants.

The development will also include 5,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space. Despite the transit access, there will be 284 parking spaces, although that is fewer than is typically required for Long Island housing developments.

Some residents voiced concerns about how Harrison Avenue traffic would be affected. It does not appear that they will be enough to derail the project, though.

The development has taken more than a decade to come to fruition. Momentum began building in 2019 after the state awarded Baldwin a $10 million downtown revitalization grant. A fifth of that grant was earmarked for the Breslin Realty site, which incongruously housed a used car lot right next to the LIRR station.

In 2020, Hempstead town officials submitted about a dozen proposals to overhaul downtown Baldwin. In addition to mixed-use retail and apartments, proposals included beautification projects and pedestrian improvements.

Based in Garden City, Breslin Realty has numerous residential and commercial properties on Long Island. It also has a handful of properties elsewhere, including in Westchester County, Connecticut and Pennsylvania.

Article: https://therealdeal.com/2022/10/06/breslins-transit-oriented-development-advances-in-long-island-hamlet/

An office property in Central Islip has sold for $21.5 million. 

Lawrence-based Bosfa Properties purchased the 168,000-square-foot Courthouse Corporate Center on 11.05 acres at 320 Carleton Ave. 

The nine-story office building was constructed in 2003. The property is 90 percent occupied. 

Bosfa Properties, founded by the father and son team of Daniel and Aron Goldstein, focuses on acquisition of investment properties and development opportunities. The company plans major upgrades to the Central Islip property. 

Peter Wolf of Select Real Equity Advisors represented the buyer, while Jack Bick of S. Charatan Realty and Michael Tuccillo of Marcus & Millichap represented the seller, The Benjamin Companies, in the sales transaction. 

“The buyers are extremely excited to close on this transaction and they see this as an ideal value-add opportunity,” said Wolf. 

Article: https://libn.com/2022/10/03/central-islip-office-complex-trades-for-21-5m/

After a cyberattack forced a three-week shutdown of much of Suffolk County’s digital infrastructure, its clerk’s office will resume in-person title searches next week. 

In an email sent to title insurance companies late Thursday, the county clerk’s office said it will open for title searching at 8 a.m. on Monday, Oct. 3. However, the office will actually open Saturday, Oct. 1 with a “limited number of terminals” to verify the readiness of the new computer configuration, according to a county spokesperson.

“We will have roughly 120 terminals available throughout the clerk’s office for searches to be conducted. At this point we believe all of the programs you are accustomed to using will be available. There are still some issues we are working out through testing which we hope to resolve over time. There are currently two printers available and we are working towards bringing additional ones online,” read the email. 

The clerk’s office warned that the system will likely be slower than usual and added that the goal is to increase business hours once it’s confirmed that the “computer environment” can handle the increased volume expected. 

In addition, the clerk’s office said it is working towards getting its systems up to be able to handle services regarding recordings and other related filings, though the office didn’t offer a timeframe when those functions would be up and running. 

As for now, there will be no ability to search the county website or for examiners to access the systems from remote computers. 

“The real estate industry is critical to our economy, and last week, I met with various stakeholder groups to discuss contingency plans as the county continues to assess the cyber intrusion,” Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone said via email. “In line with our rolling restoration of services, tomorrow the Suffolk County Clerk’s office will be open for in-person title searches to allow real estate transactions to proceed. I want to thank County Clerk Judy Pascale, for her partnership as we continue to navigate these unprecedented circumstances. Together we are working to ensure services that our residents rely on are restored in a safe and secure way. I also want to thank Governor Kathy Hochul, a former clerk herself, for her support and helping provide the necessary equipment to make this all possible.” 

As LIBN previously reported, the cyberattack has wreaked havoc throughout the Long Island real estate industry because it paralyzed the county clerk’s office, which is responsible for recording documents and assisting with records searches for properties. 

The attack shut down the county’s online systems earlier this month, and has delayed or cancelled real estate closings, especially on larger commercial deals, as title companies can’t search county databases to accurately ensure that the properties have no liens, judgments or other encumbrances in order to pass title. 

Suffolk County websites and web-based applications were taken down on Sept. 8, after officials found malware in county systems. Ransomware postings on the website DataBreaches.net showed images of county documents and the hackers claimed to have extracted court records, sheriff’s office records, contracts with the state, and personal data of citizens from the domain of the county clerk. 

County officials have yet to respond to requests for comment on when its systems will be back online and operating normally. 

Article: https://libn.com/2022/09/30/suffolk-clerks-office-to-resume-title-searches/

The recent cyberattack that crippled much of Suffolk County’s digital infrastructure is wreaking havoc throughout the Long Island real estate industry. 

The attack shut down the county’s online systems earlier this month, and has paralyzed the county clerk’s office, which is responsible for recording documents and assisting with records searches for properties. 

The result has delayed or cancelled real estate closings, especially on larger commercial deals, as title companies can’t search county databases to accurately ensure that the properties have no liens, judgments or other encumbrances in order to pass title. 

“The delay in restoring access to the county’s real estate records, which had been accessible online prior to the hack, is causing many title companies to withhold final clearance which would allow closings to occur,” said attorney David Rosenberg of Garden City-based Rosenberg Fortuna & Laitman. “These records are essential to determine if any new liens, encumbrances or property transfers have been filed between the original title report and the closing. On newer deals, it delays the initial title report so the title company qualifies the report in a way that counsel for buyers, borrowers and lenders cannot confidently close any significant transactions.” 

Attorney Howard Stein, head of the Real Estate Practice Group at East Meadow-based Certilman Balin Adler & Hyman, agrees that the inability to clear title will put new deals into limbo. 

“New title reports cannot be prepared and therefore recently signed transactions are completely stalled so the impact will grow exponentially,” Stein said. “The effects of the economics could be devastating if they cannot find a workaround.” 

The shutdown of county systems has forced some title insurers to add an exception to their Schedule B list of things they can’t insure, which now includes “any defect, lien, encumbrance, adverse claim, or other matter created by or arising out of the inaccessibility of the Office of Suffolk County, including, but not limited to an inability to search the public records, or any delay in recordation of documents in the public records.” 

Joseph Barretta, managing partner of Garden City-based Capri Capital Management, said the inability to insure clear title is putting a multi-million-dollar deal in Bay Shore his company is trying to close in jeopardy. 

“The longer this goes on the higher the likelihood is that real estate transactions will either be cancelled or end up in litigation,” Barretta told LIBN. “This also affects new development, as developers can’t close on construction loans. Tens of millions of dollars, if not hundreds of millions, of lost wages, profits, and commissions are being lost. It is impacting the livelihoods of anyone related to the real estate business.” 

Some real estate deals, especially smaller residential sales, have been able to close, as buyers have been accepting affidavits from sellers that assert there are no liens or other encumbrances on their properties. 

“If they were in process before the hack and all of the title searches were done, they have been closing,” said Linda Haltman of Plainview-based Hallmark Abstract Services. “With the exception of vacant land, new construction and foreclosures, underwriters are allowing sellers to sign affidavits if the searches have already been done.” 

However, Haltman says that in light of rapidly rising mortgage rates, delays in closing could get expensive. 

“Without an extension of a rate lock-in period, delays in being able to close could be costly,” she said. “On a mortgage for a $500,000 house, it could cost an additional $5,000 upfront to pay down the rate.” 

But on higher-priced homes and larger commercial property sales, affidavits just won’t cut it, as insurance underwriters won’t want to take the word of a seller when the risk is substantial. 

Suffolk County websites and web-based applications were taken down on Sept. 8, after officials found malware in county systems. Ransomware postings on the website DataBreaches.net showed images of county documents and the hackers claimed to have extracted court records, sheriff’s office records, contracts with the state, and personal data of citizens from the domain of the county clerk. 

“It is imperative that the county resolve this issue and resume operations, as there will be an impending snowball effect of damages due to the shutdown,” Barretta said.   

County officials have yet to respond to requests for comment on what the county is doing to repair or re-establish its data infrastructure and when its systems will be back online and operating normally. 

Article: https://libn.com/2022/09/29/suffolk-cyberattack-wreaking-havoc-on-real-estate-deals/

What had been a quiet month for mid-market investment sales in New York City got busy last week, with multifamily properties again proving to be a highly sought-after asset class.

Five of the seven transactions between $10 million and $40 million that hit city property records included apartment buildings or plans for them. Four were in Brooklyn, two were in Manhattan and one was in the Bronx.

Below are details on each sale, ranked by dollar figure.

1. Entities connected to the development firm Tankhouse bought a development site at 452 Union Street in Gowanus for $40.7 million from an entity tied to Pilot Real Estate Group. The site, which has qualified for the now-expired 421a tax abatement, is a wedding venue that will be demolished. Tankhouse plans a mixed-use development on the lot, which stretches a full city block and borders the Gowanus Canal. Pilot received approval in April for excavation work for an eight-story, 81,000-square-foot building with 24 apartments. The project is also expected to include 35,000 square feet for commercial use. Pilot acquired the site for $12.3 million from Meadow Street Partners in 2014.

2. An entity connected to HUBB NYC Properties bought a mixed-use residential and retail building at 223-225 Fourth Avenue in Park Slope for $40 million from an entity tied to Greystone Development. Cushman & Wakefield’s Dan O’Brien and Adam Spies brokered the transaction. The 48,200-square-foot building has 63 units across 13 floors. Greystone, which purchased it in 2015 for $13.5 million, put it on the market in 2020. The property qualifies for the 421a tax break.

3. An entity tied to JRC Management bought a pair of apartment buildings at 156 and 162 East Seventh Street in Alphabet City for $22 million from Peter Herrick. Cushman & Wakefield’s Bryan Hurley and Michael DeCheser brokered the deal. The pre-war, five-story buildings consist of 47 units across more than 27,000 square feet. They last sold in 1974 for an undisclosed amount.

Northwell Health has exceeded its $1 billion fundraising goal and now aims to raise another $400 million.

The New Hyde Park-based health care network raised $1.02 billion by this summer, six months before its own end-of-year deadline, Northwell is due to announce Thursday.

Nearly 170,000 individuals, foundations and corporations contributed to the effort, called “Outpacing the Impossible: The Northwell Campaign.” The donors included 11,000 Northwell employees, who donated more than $15 million. The network is the state’s largest private employer, with 80,000 workers. More than 32,000 gifts came from first-time donors last year, Northwell said.

The outpouring of donations “says a lot about the communities that we serve,” Brian Lally, chief development officer at Northwell, said in an interview. “When COVID hit, communities responded in a way that was absolutely touching.”

The funds have had a “profound impact” on Northwell hospitals, he said.

The $1 billion raised in the last six years includes $412 million for building projects, such as the Petrocelli Advanced Surgical Pavilion under construction at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, the Katz Women’s Surgical Center at Glen Cove Hospital, the recently opened Damaghi Family Surgical Operating Complex at Cohen Children’s Medical Center in New Hyde Park and the Entenmann Family Campus and the Bohlsen Neurosciences Center at South Shore University Hospital in Bay Shore, among other facilities.

The remaining funds support programs throughout Northwell, including $61 million to help establish the Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell.

The donations have “significantly boosted advancements in research, education, prevention and treatment,” Northwell president and CEO Michael Dowling said in a statement.

The next phase of fundraising will focus on health disparities, cancer and mental health care, including a new 104-bed psychiatric facility that will connect Cohen Children’s Medical Center with Zucker Hillside Hospital in Queens, Lally said.

The fundraisers help support initiatives such as the breast cancer surgery program at Glen Cove Hospital, said Brooke Mills, who had preventive double mastectomy surgery at Glen Cove last year, after she learned that she was at high risk of breast cancer due to a mutation in a gene known as BRCA.

The surgeons gave her their cellphone numbers so she could ask questions after business hours, and a nurse brought her home-cooked food since her family members could not visit her in the hospital due to the pandemic, said Mills, who lives in Woodmere with her husband and three children, ages 9, 12 and 13.

“They go so above and beyond what is normally considered the standard of care,” said Mills, a sales director at a medical device company. “They really go the extra mile to make sure the entire person is treated, from a psychological and physical perspective.”

A retail property in Melville has sold for $3.3 million. 

505 WW Holdings LLC, an entity registered to a Roslyn-based real estate investment group, purchased the 9,200-square-foot building on 1.16 acres at 505 Walt Whitman Road. 

The property is fully occupied by two tenants, Steinway Piano Gallery and Grace Music. 

The sale price equates to a 7 percent cap rate. 

Michael Gronenthal of Douglas Elliman Commercial represented the buyer, while Ted Trias served as in-house representative for the seller, Rechler Equity Partners, in the sales transaction. 

Article: https://libn.com/2022/09/21/melville-retail-property-trades-for-3-3m/

RXR has received a 60-day extension from Nassau County on a $1 million payment that’s part of its agreement to redevelop the Nassau Coliseum property. 

The benchmark payment was due at the end of August, but RXR now has until the end of next month to pony up the money. 

RXR has proposed a $1.5 billion plan to redevelop some 70 acres around the Coliseum. The project includes a mix of housing, office space and an entertainment component with retail and restaurants for the Uniondale property. 

An RXR spokesman told LIBN the company will be paying the $1 million to the county and is fully prepared to move forward with its plan. RXR entered into an escrow agreement with the Town of Hempstead in April 2021 so that the town’s planning consultant, FP Clark, could work on the project’s environmental review and the review of the developer’s conceptual master plan for the Nassau Hub, which had been delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic. 

“We’ve submitted everything with the town, the town’s been reviewing and now we’re just waiting for the town to act,” said the spokesman. 

Hempstead Town officials have not responded to several requests for comment on the status of its review or why its review process has taken this long. 

Sources say that both the county and the town have fielded interest from firms eyeing the Coliseum property as a potential site for a casino, though the RXR spokesman maintains that their plan does not contemplate a gaming facility as part of its project. 

However, RXR is exploring the possibility of a redevelopment without the Coliseum, as the venue has struggled to attract events amid competition from the new UBS Arena at Belmont Park. 

A spokesman for Coliseum leaseholder Nassau Live declined to comment. 

Whether it’s with or without the arena, RXR CEO Scott Rechler said his company is still moving forward to redevelop the Coliseum property. 

“The pandemic may have spurred structural shifts in how we live, work, and operate, but my commitment to a new vibrant Nassau Hub in the heart of Long Island has never wavered,” Rechler said via email. “We are working hand-in-hand with the county executive and the town supervisor to turn this vision into a reality.” 

Article: https://libn.com/2022/09/20/county-extends-rxr-deadline-for-nassau-hub-project-payment/

A luxury hotel on the site of the former Grassmere Inn in Westhampton Beach has been awarded $690,512 in tax breaks by Suffolk County.

In an unanimous vote last week, the county’s Industrial Development Agency gave final approval for the tax aid to Melville-based developer WHBH Real Estate LLC in return for its investment of $11.6 million in the property and pledge to create about 14 jobs over two years.

The amount of property-tax savings is $224,587 or 22% over 10 years. But even with the tax aid, the project will generate nearly $600,000 more in property taxes over the next decade than if no improvements were made to the historic inn, according to an analysis by the Brooklyn-based consulting firm National Development Council.

The project consists of restoring the Grassmere’s main building, which dates to the 1880s, and tearing down an annex constructed in the 1960s and 1970s and an adjacent cottage. A new annex would be constructed, along with amenities such as an outdoor pool, fitness center and outdoor lounge area with fire pits.

The new hotel, to be called Seven Beach Lane, would have 16 guest rooms,  split equally between the Victorian and modern contemporary styles, according to Corey Gluckstal, managing member of the development company. He said hotel would hopefully open next year.

Gluckstal told the IDA in July that he wants Seven Beach Lane’s guests to patronize nearby bars and restaurants so the hotel’s guests-only bar and restaurant will have a limited menu.

Article: https://www.newsday.com/business/suffolk-ida-tax-breaks-hotel-westhampton-beach-mlqa8z4w

Reading has been more than fundamental for Barnes & Noble.

It also has been more profitable for the book retailer since its sale in 2019 and because of consumers’ changing habits during the COVID-19 pandemic, so much so that the once-struggling chain is opening 16 new stores this year, including one in Riverhead.

“As sales and profits have risen, so has its ability to invest in refurbishments of its existing stores, and in the opening of new bookstores. In short, the expansion is being spurred by its success,” Barnes & Noble told Newsday in emailed responses to questions this week.

The Riverhead store, which will be Barnes & Noble’s eighth Long Island location, will open on or around Nov. 2 at 1470 Old Country Rd. and employ 15 to 20 people, the retailer said. Pier 1 Imports vacated the space in 2020 after the home décor chain’s parent company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

The renovation work is underway for the bookstore, which is 10,811 square feet, said Nancy Erickson, an executive managing director and broker at real estate firm Colliers International who represents Riverhead Centre’s landlord in leasing.

Barnes & Noble is the only nationwide chain of brick-and-mortar bookstores left in the United States.

For several years, before being sold in 2019, the Manhattan-based retailer struggled as fewer people bought books, and e-commerce giant Amazon, the largest retail seller of books worldwide, chipped away at bookstores’ sales.

In January 2009, Barnes & Noble Inc. had 778 stores, including 726 operating under the Barnes & Noble Booksellers name and 52 operating primarily under the B. Dalton Bookseller name.

Now Barnes & Noble, which has 599 stores, is planning an expansion.

Barnes & Noble’s growth bodes well for all brick-and-mortar stores, including small, independent shops, because the publishing industry wants to see physical stores continue, said Jim Milliot, editorial director of Publishers Weekly, a Manhattan-based trade publication.

“They are the main physical counterweight to Amazon,” he said.

Currently, the only bookstore in Riverhead is a small business called A Book Place, a 700-square-foot shop that East Moriches resident Jocelyn Maningo Kaleita recently opened. The store, located at 489 E. Main St., is about a 10-minute drive from the new Barnes & Noble.

“Seeing as I am a brand-new bookstore owner, I opened in July, it’s not my favorite thing that Barnes & Noble is planning on coming here,” she said.

A Book Place specializes in books by independent and self-published authors — “things that you won’t necessarily find in Barnes & Noble,” said Kaleita, 39.

Some changes in recent years that have improved the fortunes of booksellers.

Online book sales surged during the pandemic, particularly when consumers were stuck at home with limited entertainment options.

Barnes & Noble also was helped by the sale of the company in 2019, book industry experts said.

Private equity firm Elliot Advisors bought Barnes & Noble and brought in James Daunt as the new chief executive of the chain, which became private. Daunt had turned around the largest bookstore chain in England, Waterstones, also owned by Elliot Advisors.

“I think people would say that Daunt and the equity firm that is backing him have put more into the stores that the old regime didn’t and that he’s really infused some different buying ideas in terms of how the [retailer’s] book buyers buy books,” such as placing lower initial orders as part of a plan to lower book returns, Milliot said.

Barnes & Noble also has changed how it manages stores by decentralizing operations by letting its stores decide what books they will carry “to curate the best possible bookstore for their community,” Barnes & Noble said.

Barnes & Noble plans to open 30 stores in 2023, the retailer said.

“This compares to a total of just 15 being opened in the nine years from 2010 to 2019. Before Amazon really knocked back physical bookstores, Barnes & Noble had been able to grow strongly. In the 16 years between 1993 and 2008, it opened an average of 35 new stores each year,” Barnes & Noble said.

Article: https://www.newsday.com/business/barnes-and-noble-riverhead-store-bookseller-retailer-c76yng01