Long Island Office Complex Changes Hands

By Keith Loria, Contributing Editor

100 Merrick Road in Rockville Centre, N.Y.

Valley East Management LLC has acquired 100 Merrick Road, a 141,000-square-foot, two-building office complex in Rockville Centre, N.Y., from a New York-based investment advisory firm.

HFF represented both sides in the transaction. The HFF team included Jose Cruz, senior managing director; Kevin O’Hearn and Jeffrey Julien, both managing directors; and Stephen Simonelli and Michael Oliver, both senior directors.

“There are a lot of positives that people liked about this building,” Cruz told Commercial Property Executive. “The location of Rockville Centre is great; it’s right off the highway and it’s a solid office market.”

The Nassau County property is the largest office complex in downtown Rockville Centre and its close proximity to the LIRR Rockville Center train station makes it highly in demand. The location also offers easy access to main thoroughfares, including Sunrise Highway, Southern State Parkway, the Belt Parkway and the Meadowbrook Parkway.

Diverse tenant roster

Amenities at the five-story property include an on-site café, tenant storage and on-site parking.

At the time of the deal, 100 Merrick Road was 93 percent leased to a diverse set of tenants from the legal services, medical/health-care and accounting industries. Northwell Health, which leases a percentage of the first floor in the east building, sits as its most noteworthy tenant.

Last summer, Northwell Health, New York City’s largest health-care network, signed a 22,000-square-foot lease with Rudin Management Co. at The Greenwich Lane, a 199-unit residential condominium complex jointly owned by Rudin and Eyal Ofer’s Global Holdings. The health-care company will occupy space on the second and third floors, and will soon open a new community facility that will offer primary specialty care services to local residents.

“When you look at the quality of the tenancy there with Northwell Health, that was a big attraction,” Cruz said. “The amenities are important, no doubt. But with the access to retail, executive-type housing and highways, that combo is what did it.”

Additionally, Cruz added, the buyer was attracted to the perception that there’s a lot more value to extract from the building. Valley East Management now owns approximately 500,000 square feet of commercial real estate.

Image courtesy of HFF