Philip Heilpern: Where are we now, where are we headed and where are the opportunities?

Long Island remains a market serving its master on Manhattan but certainly isn't benefitting from the wealth and breadth of the NY City office marketplace. While we occasionally see a New York law firm or financial institution relocating or expanding to Long Island, much of our growth has been from within. Locally founded, entrepreneurial companies have grown and expanded here and continue to be the life blood of the office market. Since 1985, we have seen 2 periods of moderate construction (1984-1989 and 2002-2007) but even then, the additional space was less than 5% percent of the overall market at the time. We have seen far greater growth in the redevelopment of older industrial buildings as those users have relocated to less expensive locations to the west or south. Since 2008, Long Island has experienced a softening of the office market with some sub-markets experiencing availability rates over 20% (equilibrium is 10%). As such, we do not expect any speculative office development for the next several years in traditional office space. We do expect growth in the healthcare and education markets as hospitals and healthcare systems continue to expand their business lines with the acquisition of physician practices and development of outpatient services as profit centers. Philip Heilpern is the senior vice president at CB Richard Ellis | Tri-State Region | Brokerage Services, Woodbury, N.Y.