Shown (from left) are: David Gelfond of First Development Corp., Eric Dorf of Dorf Associates, Ted Weiss of T. Weiss Realty Corp., Ted Stratigos of Avison Young, Peter Curry of Farrell Fritz and Dan Gazolla of Newmark Grubb Knight Frank. Photo credit: CIBS.Melville, NY A panel of commercial property owners and real estate brokers told a Commercial Industrial Brokers Society of Long Island (CIBS) gathering that the lack of available properties has limited deal making.
Office landlord Ted Weiss of T. Weiss Realty, told more than 100 attendees at CIBS’ September 9th annual Fall State of Real Estate panel discussion that he’s seen a slowing in the Long Island office market and small firms, rather than large space users, are hunting for space. He said his firm is reconfiguring some of its office space to accommodate office users seeking spaces of between 2,500 and 3,000 s/f. “That’s what Long Island is all about,” Weiss said. He said he sees little new office construction in the immediate future, because of high costs, capitalization rates of only 3-4 percent and high loan-to-value requirements.
Meanwhile, office broker Ted Stratigos of Avison Young’s Melville office, said, “We seeing a lot of companies say we may not need to expand.” He said there is till a lot of inventory in the office market with the vacancy rate at around 15 percent.
Dan Gazolla, an industrial broker in the Melville office of Newmark Grubb Knight Frank said strong demand from end-users being forced out of Queens and Brooklyn by rising prices is pressuring the Long Island industrial market. “Rents there have skyrocketed and they are snapping up properties left and right,” he said.
Industrial landlord Eric Dorf, of Dorf Associates, whose owns spaces that range from 5,000 to 10,000 s/f, agreed, adding that many industrial tenants in the city are looking to relocate in Nassau County, but are hesitant about moving too far east. He said demand for smaller industrial space is strong, but costly to build.
David Gelfond, a retail broker with First Development Corp., said educational and medical users are replacing apparel and hard good stores in retailer centers. “There’s been a change in what we define as retail.”
Michael Marmon of Marmon Realty Group LLC, aid he sees continued demand from by medical users.
CIBS counsel Peter Curry, who heads the real estate practice at Farrell Fritz in Uniondale, moderated the panel, which was held at RXR Realty’s 58 South Service Rd.
About CIBS
CIBS was formed in 1992 out of the shared belief among the region’s leading brokers that the region needed a unified voice to advocate on behalf of professionalism, ethics and industry cohesion. Today, CIBS is a leading voice and advocate for commercial development in the Long Island market. Since its formation, CIBS has helped upgrade the industry by offering hundreds of educational programs, seminars and presentations; advocated professional standards and offered grievance resolution; provided informal mentoring relationships; raised tens of thousands of dollars for local charities; and created social settings in which colleagues have become friends, and competitors respected peers. For information about the Commercial Industrial Brokers Society of Long Island www.cibs-li.com