Distributor to small grows in stature
PC Richard & Son might want to look out. Best Buy, take note.
Intercounty Appliance Corp., a buying cooperative that helps mom-and-pop merchants compete with the big boys, just grew its space bynearly 40 percent.
The 52-year-old business - a Costco of sorts for indy retailers -left 180,000 square feet in Commack for 250,000 square feet just offCounty Road 101 in Medford. (The space has potential of 300,000square feet.)
But don't break out the calculator just yet: Intercounty alsoracked up height with its new space. Previously, its ceilings were28 feet high. Now, they soar 32 feet, adding thousands of cubicfeet, said Rich Woolfson, Intercounty's executive director.
That should help the 94 members - with 110 stores stretchingfrom Virginia to Boston - that tap Intercounty's services. Thecompany, started by dealers who grouped purchases to get bettertruckload allowances, is now one of five such operations across theNortheast.
Intercounty stocks 4,500 products ranging from can openers to a71-inch television. Business is booming, thanks to an explosion inthe popularity of high definition television and stainless steelappliances. Stainless, Woolfson explained, is a new color.
We try to be the one-stop shop for our 94 members, Woolfson said.
That's helped revenue. In 2005, revenue was $222 million, up 7.8percent from $206 million in 2004.
The move to an estimated $18-million site should eventually add160 new jobs to the current roster of more than 70 staffers, notincluding subcontractors.
Adding manpower and being located in an Empire Zone will helpIntercounty receive tax advantages said to be worth about $1million.
Last-minute change
A&G Heat Sealing Corp.'s George Ciunga was pondering retirement.
He even contracted to sell his 12,000-square-foot building at 205Marcus Blvd. in Hauppauge to Mobileistic Inc., a wholesaler of cellphone and wireless communication equipment.
But, in the middle of the deal, A&G's business surged.
Ciunga decided to stay in business and rent space, said Daniel T.Gazzola, the Newmark Knight Frank broker who worked with colleagueChuck Tabone to represent A&G and Mobileistic.
Ciunga, who hadn't paid rent in two decades, experienced stickershock, Gazzola said.
And there was a time limit - Mobileistic had a firm closing date.
We looked at every building for sale in his size range andgeographic area in a whirlwind 45 days, Gazzola said.
Success came at 10 Colt Court in Ronkonkoma.
This is where the deal gets even more complicated. A&G inked acontract to buy the 12,400 Colt Court space and moved inimmediately. It then leased half of the building back to seller Car-Lin Holdings, a graphic printer. The two will share the space forabout five years.
Luckily, all went well, Gazzola said, And all parties arepleased.
A new record
For the first time, Ted Weiss' 366,000-square-foot Huntingtonportfolio is 100-percent full.
It's unusual, but it's great, said Weiss, president of T. WeissRealty Corp.
At 105 Maxess Road, several tenants leased space in TotusBusiness Centers. The concept, instant office suites available foras little as a day, now houses National City Mortgage, part ofNational City Corp., which leased six offices. People's Choice HomeLoan took four and Nautilus Consulting LLC, a construction adviseryfirm, leased two. Finally, FuelCell Energy Inc. took a single unit.
The complete occupancy, Weiss said, shows that the new projectthat is under construction is perfectly timed.
By that he means Melville Corporate Center III, 118,000 squarefeet set to open just off the Long Island Expressway in October.
Law giant Rivkin Radler is considering relocating from RecksonPlaza in Uniondale. Other law firms, a national insurance companyand a technology firm are eyeing the space, according to Weiss.
WWW clicks new space
Hamptons.com, an online entertainment and lifestyle magazine thatclaims to be viewed by more than 400,000 people monthly, moved intonew editorial headquarters at 38 Main St. in Southampton.
The 1,250-square-foot office is in a former Masonic buildingdating back to the mid-1800s. The space Hamptons.com uses housed alingerie store for four decades, a spokesman said.
Inspired by Good Morning America, passers-by can peer through anoversized window and watch Hamptons.com staffers conduct Internet-based interviews.
The Dotted Line
Bill Deegan and Barry Turk, owners of Shore to Shore Realty inWest Islip, have shed their independence. They're now Weichert,Realtors - Shore to Shore. Deegan and Turk join 12 franchised Islandoffices of Weichert, which was ranked by Entrepreneur magazine asone of the nation's fastest-growing franchises.
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