Broker of the Month: Tom Attivissimo of Greiner-Maltz of Long Island gets the job done by being diligent and resourceful

After Photo Circuits closed its doors, nine buildings totaling 475,000 s/f on 24 acres were vacant. Tom Attivissimo, CCIM of Greiner-Maltz of Long Island convinced the owner to sell 88 Hazel St. This 51,000 s/f industrial commercial building on 2.5 acres was a perfect fit for a public storage facility. The town preferred the use and after several meetings with the town, Men On The Move chose this location for its next expansion site for its public storage operation. The first contract draft went out in 2007-2008 and when Men On The Move was ready to sign they backed out because the market was getting bad. Attivissimo was diligent in this follow-up and reintroduced this site to Men On The Move in 2009 with a lower price. Attivissimo and Men On The Move went back to the town but this time with Men On The Move's new partner, Racanelli Construction. After two plus years of negotiations with the lender's attorney, the owner's attorney and the buyer's attorney, the building was sold at auction where shortly after Men On The Move ultimately closed on 88 Hazel St. Attivissimo was the exclusive agent for the owner and was the procuring broker for the sale transaction. When Island Harvest realized that they need to rescue and distribute more food to needy Long Island families. Randi Dressner, president of Island Harvest anticipated a 20-30% increase of food to meet demand. Island Harvest calculates need in pounds and that percentage increase translates into an extra two million pounds of food a year. To achieve efficient recovery and distribution of the food Island Harvest would need a larger facility. Randi quickly assembled a real estate site selection team to search for a new home. The team consisted of real estate experts hand picked by Randi and the Island Harvest board. Attivissimo was selected to find the site and negotiate the transaction. A 24,000 s/f facility, 40 Marcus Blvd. in Hauppauge Industrial Park was found. Randi immediately saw the potential of consolidating and expanding many of Island Harvest operations in this location, which offered more for all of Island Harvest incentives and future growth. Attivissimo negotiated the business points in the lease, while Rich Berone of RMB Development handled all of the real estate compliance issues. Appolo Display designs, manufactures and is a leading distributor of flat panel displays and systems solutions. They needed more room and a more efficient space to produce a high quality product, so a site selection team was formed to search for a new home for Appolo Displays. Attivissimo was able to craft a long term lease at 87 Raynor Ave., Ronkonkoma with landlord O'Shea properties and their representative Katie Reves which will provide an Appolo Display a more efficient ergonomic space plan that will help their current and future growth plan. This 16,000 s/f fully air conditioned industrial building built in 1990 will be an asset to Appolo. When the Huntington School of Fine Arts (HSFA) needed a better location for their growing art school with the help of Attivissimo, they were able to find a new home about one mile from their old location. This 10,000 s/f space was previously occupied by Cold Spring Laboratories and was vacant for two years. "The raw space is perfect for the school; when you look up you see the steel deck roof and joists. The floor is rough and textured which is perfect when mixed with paint spatter," said Attivissimo. This facility is all on one floor as opposed to their old location which was on two. Being on one floor will allow for a better continuity of classes and exhibits as a more efficient use of space with no loss factor. This allowed HSFA to reduce their overall square footage by 3,500 s/f. This translated to a large reduction in overall fix and utility costs. Attivissimo had help from Frank Poscillico of Alliance Real Estate to craft this long term transaction with the landlord Rosa Racanelli. The need for a consolidation of programs the Alzheimer Chapter of Long Island inspired them to look for a new space. After a year long search they found 45 Park Ave., Bayshore, N.Y. Steve D'Orazio of Colliers helped negotiate a sale transaction of this 8,500 s/f office building, represented by exclusive agent, Attivissimo.