Adaptive reuse drives commercial conversions on Long Island

On an island where space is always at a premium, build-to-suit development comes with a high cost. That’s why many businesses seek the expertise of building design professionals well-versed in adaptive reuse, and Long Island‘s aging commercial inventory presents plenty of options for conversion projects.

The opportunity isn’t just limited to denser suburbs like Long Island, according to Christopher Robinson, president of R&M Engineering in Huntington. “As new, modern industrial and warehouse buildings are developed, many older properties have become strong candidates for adaptive reuse,” he says. “Rather than demolishing these buildings, owners are finding ways to reposition them to meet today’s market demands.”

Many commercial properties across Long Island have undergone conversions to keep them viable as the nature of business has changed through the decades. “Conversions have been a fact of our time since the loss of the defense industry on Long Island and the globalization of industry and manufacturing, and most recently COVID,” says Sal Ferrara, owner of Combined Resources Consulting & Design in Mineola. “Sectors of business move away or become non-productive and the buildings that housed these areas of business become fallow until we find new uses for them.”

As the industrial sector waned, demand for medical space ticked upward, and buildings once outfitted for manufacturing became attractive options for developers of medical malls, giving healthcare providers an opportunity to address a growing market. “We have been busy for the last 10 years converting manufacturing and retail buildings to medical multi-specialty practices,” Ferrara says. “As the larger hospitals have moved onto the Island the desire to create the ‘medical mall’ has increased. These structures are created so all the medical disciplines are referred inwardly.”

However, converting buildings for medical use can present problems to which there are no easy solutions. One common obstacle is finding a way to satisfy parking requirements. “Parking variances are time-consuming and become difficult for patients to navigate,” Ferrara says. “The larger industrial buildings often need multiple entrances to reduce walking hundreds of feet within the building.”

Ferrara’s firm has headed several large conversions, including the Pall Corporation building at 2200 Northern Blvd in East Hills, the Forest Laboratories building at 500 Commack Road and the Sears at the Smith Haven Mall in Lake Grove.

Even after overcoming parking issues, Ferrara points out that converting to medical use can be particularly expensive and lengthy, especially in the case of the Sears property, which Combined Resources has adapted for use as a medical space. “The building had 20 fixtures—it now has close to 200 fixtures,” notes Ferrara. “And in Suffolk [County], getting sanitary credits is daunting.”

Industrial properties in our area are more frequently being repurposed for things besides medical uses as well. “We’re seeing a growing number of industrial buildings being converted into indoor recreational uses, such as pickleball facilities, trampoline parks, and fitness centers,” says Robinson.

Conversion projects can sometimes provide desirable updates for older buildings, especially those with parking considered inadequate by today’s standards. “We’ve worked with clients who have transformed older industrial or manufacturing facilities that were built when parking requirements were much lower,” Robinson says. “By reducing a portion of the building footprint, they were able to create more attractive entrances, add front-field parking, improve the streetscape and enhance the overall customer experience.”

Robinson believes such trade-offs are worth it in the long run. “Even though the leasable square footage may decrease, these improvements can significantly increase the property’s value and marketability.”

R&M has already completed several adaptive reuse projects on Long Island according to Robinson, including a pickleball facility in an underutilized industrial building in Huntington, and converting a former warehouse into a modern veterinary hospital in Hempstead. But the work hasn’t slowed. “We’re working on several industrial renovation projects that modernize older facilities, improve their functionality and appearance, and ultimately increase their long-term value,” he says.

Buildings on Long Island often present issues that can make conversions complicated, and such projects can often require approvals that are hard to obtain. “Depending on the use, the majority of existing buildings were built with relatively low roof heights. This can be especially challenging for occupants that have storage components, which benefit from much higher roof lines,” explains Ray Caliendo, founding principal of Art Of Form Architectural Services in Amityville. “Also, the permitting procedures can be very time-consuming, depending on the municipality.”

Still, conversions remain popular on Long Island as some build-to-suit projects can be impossible, and those that aren’t are impractical nonetheless. “There simply is not enough vacant land available,” Caliendo says. “Also, the cost of building from scratch here, as opposed to renovating, can be prohibitive.”

Caliendo describes several successful conversions Art Of Form has completed locally, among them a Huntington Station auto body shop that underwent a major reconfiguration and overhaul to the building components, a Farmingdale industrial site which required a fully renovated interior and upgraded facade, and 999 South Oyster Bay Road, a former Grumman site. He recalls: “We had to modernize and upgrade all building systems that were originally designed for Grumman so that they would work for modern day tenancies.”