Landmark Sale

Deer Park firm buys Grumman building

May 31, 2003

The sprawling building that served as the original Bethpage headquarters for Grumman Corp. has been sold by Los Angeles-based Northrop Grumman Corp. to a Deer Park warehousing company.

Terms of the sale to Distribution Traffic Services Inc., announced Friday, were not disclosed. The asking price for the 386,000-square-foot office and industrial building was $17 million.

Northrop Grumman leased back about 60,000 square feet, mostly office space, in the property, which was called Building One, for two of its businesses: Northrop Grumman Information Technology and Airborne Early Warning and Electronic Warfare Systems.

The building, built in 1930, sits on 25 acres, some of which could be developed in the future. Tod Buckvar of Plainview-based Buck Realty, who represented the warehouse company in the deal, said the company has no plans to develop the site.

Distribution Traffic, one of Long Island's largest public warehouse companies, is owned by Melville-based E&F Trucking Inc.

Northrop Grumman has been expanding in its four other large buildings in Bethpage - Building 25, which is south of the Long Island Rail Road tracks, and Buildings 14, 15 and 26, north of the tracks.

Northrop Grumman once occupied 600 acres in Bethpage, including about 100 acres that belonged to the Navy. Since 1994, when Northrop acquired Grumman, most of the property has been sold. New industrial buildings and senior housing have been built. One building is now home to Briarcliff College and another houses an insurer, The Robert Plan Corp. The company's former headquarters building at 1111 Stewart Ave. is now the headquarters of Cablevision Systems Corp.

Phil Heilpern, along with Martin Lamazow, Richard Karson and Larry Weiss, all of Insignia/ESG's Woodbury office, represented Northrop Grumman in what is the largest industrial real estate sale on Long Island so far this year.