Evolving Motorsports Inc., which does business as Engineered Motorsports, leased a 16,836-square-foot industrial building on 1 acre at 65 Davids Drive in Hauppauge. Luke Anderson of Industry One Realty represented the tenant, while Luca Perinuzzi and Ralph Perna of Schacker Realty represented the landlord, A.B.J.L. Realty LLC, in the lease transaction.
The JAG Law Group, a personal injury law firm, purchased the two-story, 9,564-square-foot building on 1.1 acres in front of the Baldwin Square Shopping Center at 2300 Grand Ave. for $2.48 million. The building, currently about 80 percent vacant, was formerly occupied by Bank of America. The buyer plans extensive renovations to the building, where it will occupy the first floor. The available space on the second floor will be leased to other tenants, according to a broker on the deal. JAG Law Group, headed by Jason Greenberg, will be relocating to the Baldwin building from its current location on South Ocean Avenue in Freeport. The law firm handles all types of injury cases, litigating against the insurance industry throughout Long Island and the New York metropolitan area. Tom Bigansky of North Village Realty represented the buyer, while the seller, Nationwide Protection LTD, was self-represented in the Baldwin sales transaction.
238-240 Deer Park Ave., Babylon
Darius Mroczkowski, a local commercial real estate investor, purchased a three-story, 13,500-square-foot mixed-use building on .16 acres at 238-240 Deer Park Ave. and 8-14 Railroad Ave. in Babylon Village for $4.625 million. The fully occupied property, located across from the Babylon Long Island Rail Road station, has eight apartments, four two-bedroom units and four one-bedroom units, above ground floor commercial space. Current tenants include La Bottega Italian Gourmet, Salon Hue, Lucky Barbershop, Momentum School of Music, OG Ramen and ATL Wings. The sale price equates to $342 per square foot and a cap rate of nearly 7 percent. Stacy McFadden of Signature Premier Properties procured the buyer and represented the seller, 240 Deer Park Ave. LLC, an affiliate of Paulicelli Brothers Properties, in the sales transaction.
Tony’s Tacos leased a 4,000-square-foot restaurant space in a newly built pad-site building in the Levittown Mews shopping center at 3335 Hempstead Turnpike. The Levittown restaurant is expected to open in the fourth quarter of this year. Tony’s Tacos has four existing locations, including Franklin Square, Huntington, Garden City and Floral Park, already open. Last November, the chain also leased a 4,400-square-foot pad site in the redeveloped Shops at SunVet shopping center in Holbrook. Tony’s Tacos is an Italian-inspired taqueria with a menu of more than 40 tacos, as well as bowls, salads, quesadillas, sides and frozen margaritas. The restaurant’s unique taco options include Short Rib Peter Luger, Chicken Parm, Smoked Salmon, Mushroom Risotto and a Surf & Turf taco. Anthony Russo of the Breslin Organization represented Tony’s Tacos, as he is the exclusive broker for the restaurant chain. The landlord, Breslin Organization, was self-represented in the Levittown lease transaction.
Dorf Associates purchased a 3,700-square-foot industrial building on .28 acres at 670 Pine Air Drive in Bay Shore for $950,000. Robert Desmond of Industry One Realty represented the buyer, as well as the seller, N. Bay Shore Realty Co. LTD, in the sales transaction.
3B Surf LLC purchased .73 acres of land on Manor Yaphank Road in Manorville for $535,000. Robert Desmond of Industry One Realty represented the buyer, as well as the seller, IJRH North Road, LLC, in the sales transaction.
Integrated Tech Labs purchased a 13,500-square-foot industrial building on .75 acres at 208-210 S. Fehr Way in Bay Shore for $2.9 million. Integrated Tech, which provides engineering solutions and testing services to the military, aerospace and other sectors, is relocating from Deer Park. Alberto Fiorini and Niko Khetaguri of Alliance Real Estate represented the buyer, while Frank Posillico of Fra-Nic Realty represented the seller, James Mitchel Properties, in the sales transaction.
210 E. Sunrise Highway, Lynbrook
Clear Freight, a logistics company, subleased 7,000 square feet of office space at 210 E. Sunrise Highway in Lynbrook. The firm is relocating from Inwood. Clear Freight’s three-year sublease was extended seven more years with a direct lease with the Lynbrook property’s landlord. Daniel Gazzola and Daniel Oliver of Newmark represented Clear Freight and the landlord, Three Brothers Properties, while Ralph Giuffre of CBRE represented the main tenant, Seko Worldwide, in the sublease transaction.
One Stop Metro LLC & QAPLA Holdings LLC purchased a 6,000-square-foot industrial building on 1.19 acres at 79 Cedarhurst Ave. in Medford for $1.9 million. Mark Timpone of Metro Realty Services represented the buyer, while Jeremy Hackett of Metro Realty Services represented the seller, 79 Cedarhurst Ave LLC, in the sales transaction.
3165 Route 112, Medford
Jallall Jagmohan Family Trust purchased a 6,000-square-foot retail building on 1.4 acres at 3165 Route 112 in Medford for $1.5 million. Michael Gronenthal of Douglas Elliman Commercial represented the buyer, while Michael Murphy and Dennis Gandley of Douglas Elliman Commercial represented the seller, Stacey Kjaer, in the sales transaction.
39 Maple Place, Amityville
39 Maple Place LLC purchased a 4,400-square-foot industrial building on .21 acres at 39 Maple Place in Amityville for $1.2 million. Michael Pisciotta of Metro Realty Services represented the buyer, while Rosemarie Bozza of Above Board Realty represented the seller, Sumpkin Family Trust, in the sales transaction.
Kashif Naseem purchased a 12,333-square-foot industrial building on .46 acres at 36 Syvester St. in Westbury for $2.8 million. Mark Timpone and Andrew Blumenthal of Metro Realty Services represented the buyer, as well as the seller, Grand Machinery, in the sales transaction.
Rookies Fitness LLC leased a 4,000-square-foot retail space at 3648 Long Beach Road in Oceanside. Christopher Pesce and Kenneth Hester of Douglas Elliman Commercial represented the tenant, as well as the landlord, 3644 Long Beach Rd LLC, in the lease transaction.
Forty years ago, on Labor Day, two boys playing with matches unwittingly set a fire that would burn through about 20% of industrial buildings in , a city already under considerable duress.
The fire is among the state’s worst, ranking behind only two others: the 1902 Paterson fire that destroyed more than 400 buildings, including City Hall and the public library, and the 1963 Black Saturday wildfires, which consisted of 37 separate blazes that burned about 183,000 to 190,000 acres of forest, left seven people dead and consumed about 400 buildings.
The Sept. 2, 1985, Labor Day Fire continues to live in the minds of current and retired city firefighters.
Six former textile buildings and 17 multifamily homes are destroyed by fire, forcing the evacuation of 400 people in Passaic, N.J. The blaze on Ninth Street which began around 2:30 p.m. destroyed the facilities of more than 50 manufacturers in the complex along the Passaic River. September 2, 1985
On that day, they say, 2.2 million square feet of industrial spaceburned down, along with a number of houses. It left a decades-old scar on the eastern side of the city that only in recent years has been rebuilt.
Labor Day Fire lives on in firefighters’ memories
Current Passaic Fire Chief Pat Trentacost said his memories of the fire remain vivid. Not yet a firefighter, the then-19-year-old was shopping for furniture with his fiancée when he saw the smoke from Route 17. He said he rushed over and, wearing his father’s old turnout coat, handed out cups of water to the dozens of firefighters who were there to fight the blaze.
His father, Victor, and his uncle Tony were firemen at the time. The day, he said, was bright and sunny but windy, conditions that aided the fire, which very quickly became uncontrollable.
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It produced heat so intense that it caused nearby buildings to combust before flames even reached them.
It left 2,000 jobless and hundreds homeless as the conflagration destroyed 17 multifamily homes and scores of businesses. A firefighter from Secaucusdied of a heart attack after responding to the mutual aid call.
A year later, Michael Powell, then a staff writer for The Record, wrote this account for the Sunday, Aug. 31, 1986, edition:
“It began with two mischievous children and a book of matches. It ended in an exploding inferno that evoked comparisons to the bombing of London in World War II,” his story reads.
“One year ago, Passaic’s Labor Day fire burned its way into the history books. Two-thousand-degree temperatures and 100-foot-high flames incinerated century-old factories, 21 in all, and 17 apartment buildings and homes as the fire raced through the heart of the city’s industrial district, known as Lower Dundee,” Powell wrote.
“For 12 hours, 150 firefighters from more than a dozen towns poured water on the blaze, but when they were finished, the damage stood at $100 million, and thousands of people were left without jobs or homes. It was a time of despair,” his story reads.
Glenn Corbett, who was a young volunteer firefighter with the Waldwick department at the time of the fire, said he still teaches about it as a professor of fire science at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York. He also serves on the Fire Code Advisory Council for New Jersey.
“It was the largest fire I have ever seen,” Corbett said.
Six former textile buildings and 17 multifamily homes are destroyed by fire, forcing the evacuation of 400 people in Passaic, N.J. The blaze on Ninth Street which began around 2:30 p.m. destroyed the facilities of more than 50 manufacturers in the complex along the Passaic River. September 2, 1985
Many lessons learned from Labor Day Fire
Corbett and Trentacost said many lessons were learned that day.
Not surprisingly, the water in the hydrants was insufficient, Corbett said. He said water systems are not built for conflagrations.
The blaze also reinforced the importance of ember control, he said. Teams of firefighters are needed in massive fires like the one that took place 40 years ago, to keep burning embers from igniting structures.
Trentacost said the science of fighting fires is constantly evolving, whether through Labor Day or the more recent Marcal, Atlantic Coast and Qualco fires.
“From each catastrophic fire we learn something,” the chief said. “Communications and training are improved. We work on it until the next time we roll out.”
Corbett and Trentacost said the Labor Day Fire cemented the notion that in massive fires, crews consume huge amounts of water. Today, there are teams of firefighters whose sole job is to keep water flowing to hoses, the chief said.
Although in 1985 there was a mutual aid system, it was not as organized as it is today, he said. The radios also are improved and better for coordination among the responding departments.
Since then, Trentacost said, all of Passaic’s apparatus can draft, or draw water from sources such as the Passaic River. They also have better ideas of where water is deep enough to draft, such as the spot underneath the Eighth Street Bridge.
Trentacost said drafting helped during the Atlantic Coast fire.
What was destroyed in the Passaic Labor Day fire of 1985?
The buildings that were destroyed were originally part of Gera Mills, built between 1899 and the World War I era. By the time of the fire, the buildings had been sold and subdivided, and they housed many other companies.
General Chemical Co. was a sizable property owner on both sides of Eighth Street, occupying sites adjacent to both Gera Mills and Acheson Harden Handkerchief Co.
Gilt Edge Folding Boxes owned and occupied the former Acheson Harden property at the time of the fire.
Why did the fire burn out of control?
The major contributing cause of the fire’s spread, Corbett said, was a lack of water.
“When you get a vacant building, landlords shut off the water because they don’t want to pay,” he said.
On that fateful Labor Day, water for the sprinkler systems wasn’t connected, nor was there water in the building’s water towers, and water pressure in the hydrants was woefully inadequate.
The sprinklers hadn’t been tested in years. Improperly stored were more than 22 tons of naphthalene, a flammable chemical used in mothballs and toilet deodorizers, making the site a tinderbox awaiting a spark.
That spark came from a match struck by two boys, ages 12 and 13, lighting a fire in a trash bin in an alleyway.
The fire quickly spread to the massive timbers used to shore up the brick buildings.
Once ignited, the timbers are difficult to put out, and they produce enormous amounts of heat, Trentcost said.
Lower Dundee, the neighborhood where the fire raged, juts out from the city, forming a peninsula nestled in a curve in the Passaic River.
What has become of the land left behind by the Labor Day Fire?
The city later learned just how difficult it would be to rebuild on the land left barren by the fire. For almost 10 years, the city and property owners sparred. One of the last tracts was recently reclaimed and a massive warehouse was built, removing one of the last scars from the fire.
The city initially wanted to build public housing in the area. The landowners wanted to rebuild mixed-use units. Redevelopers came and went. One lot across Eighth Street, once the site of Acheson Harden Handkerchief Co., has been repurposed as a repair site for Verizon.
In 1994, a 60,000-square-foot ShopRite supermarket and strip mall opened on the site that was once Gera Mills. It operated until 2015 before moving across the river in Wallington. Next to it on Eighth Street, where factories once stood, were 10 acres that until a few years back remained an open field, at times overgrown and an invitation to illegal dumping.
In 2021, developer Joe Smouha, the same person who repurposed the Botany Mills site, purchased the 10 acres. He also bought the former ShopRite site and combined the two lots to build a massive warehouse on the 17 acres.
Other fires that left their mark on North Jersey
Still, North Jersey, with the relics of its industrial past still standing in many towns and cities, remains vulnerable to conflagrations.
“The Marcal fire was one,” Trentacost said, as was the 2019 fire at the Straight and Narrow halfway house in Paterson.
The Marcal plant in Elmwood Park burned down on Jan. 30, 2019. The 10-alarm fire destroyed 30 of the 36 buildings on the property and toppled the iconic Marcal sign.
The Paterson fire at the Straight and Narrow counseling center in Paterson displaced about 300.
“It is unlike anything I’ve seen in Paterson,” Mayor Andre Sayegh wrote in a Facebook post at the time. “You’ve got to commend our fire department.”
Still, since the Labor Day Fire, firefighters and prevention officials have taken the lessons to heart and say they devoutly hope that history won’t repeat itself.
