Business & Research Center at Garden City Up For Sale

Metropolitan Realty Associates of Jericho and its New York City-based equity partner, Angelo Gordon & Co., have put The Business and Research Center at Garden City up for sale.

MRA and Angelo, Gordon acquired the property in 2005, a former pharmaceutical plant, and redeveloped it as a mixed-used complex. The 188,500 square foot, two-building complex at 1000 Stewart Avenue and 500 Endo Boulevard in Garden City is occupied by tenants with long-term leases, including Lifetime Brands Inc., a publicly traded manufacturer of kitchenware, and Nassau Community College.

MRA has hired a team at Eastdil Secured to market the property. The Eastdil team includes Adam Spies, Adam Etra, Josh King and Michelle Mahl. Bids are due by the end of August. There is no minimum bid.

MRA president Joseph Farkas of Garden City anticipates great interest. "There is a dearth of credit quality, 100-percent-occupied buildings with long-term leases available for investors to acquire in today's investment market," he said. "With the return of the financing markets for this type of product, the time seems right to test the markets and return capital to our investors."

MRA and Angelo, Gordon bought the complex, designed by renowned 1960's architect Paul Rudolph, in August 2005. Originally constructed as the headquarters of Endo Pharmaceuticals, the building was completed in 1964. MRA implemented a complete, award-winning renovation of the building hat was completed in January 2007 and added windows, new building systems, parking and landscaping.

Tenants in the 1000 Stewart Avenue building include Lifetime Brands, Angion Biomedica Corp. and Home Medical Equipment LLC. The 27,000-square-foot office building at 500 Endo Boulevard is leased to Nassau Community College. 

The Business and Research Center at Garden City received the American Council of Engineering Companies 2007 Platinum Award for Engineering Excellence, the Consulting Specifying Engineer National Award 2007 for Mechanical, Electrical and Plumbing Engineering excellence for major retrofit projects and the Long Island Business News 2007 Real Estate Award for Top Mixed-Use Project on Long Island.

Described as a "Fortress for Pharmaceuticals" by architectural publications at the time it was completed in 1964, the campus is comprised of two buildings containing 188,500 square feet on 7.55 acres. The main building, a turreted, cast-in-place-concrete structure, received several awards for Rudolph's bold design. The building ranks among the major projects designed by Rudolph, who was considered America's most-talented Late Modernist architect. The second property, 500 Endo Boulevard is a freestanding, two-story, 27,000 square foot building also designed by Rudolph and constructed several years later.

In 2005, the Town of Hempstead Industrial Development Agency provided the building with a 10-year PILOT (payment in lieu of taxes) program that originally reduced property taxes at the complex to $2.37 per square foot, considerably below competitive properties in Nassau County. The tax rate increases on a graduated basis during the last seven years of the program.

The building is one of only a handful of works on Long Island designed by the well-known architect. After Endo's sale in 1969 to E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Co. the building continued to be used as a pharmaceutical plant until about two years ago by a succession of companies that included DuPont Pharmaceuticals and Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharma. 

MRA and Angelo, Gordon recently acquired another Garden City property, the 335,000-square-foot office building at 711 Stewart Avenue. The owners plan to renovate the building for mixed uses including office, medical and retail and have renamed it Garden City Square.

For more information about Metropolitan Realty Associates visit www.metropolitanra.com.