LI Cheat Sheet: Woodbury Country Club to undergo multifamily conversion … & more

Clockwise from top left: Estée Lauder decides to build $14.5M facility in Melville, $47.5M rehab to be built in Calverton, Developer closes $54.5M deal on Newsday's Melville home and Woodbury Country Club sold and to become residential development.
Clockwise from top left: Estée Lauder decides to build $14.5M facility in Melville, $47.5M rehab to be built in Calverton, Developer closes $54.5M deal on Newsday's Melville home and Woodbury Country Club sold and to become residential development.

Woodbury Country Club to undergo multifamily conversion
The 16.8-acre Woodbury Country Club was bought by a New York City-based private equity firm, Long Island Business News reported. The longtime catering venue will close its doors on Nov. 30. Its new owners  — a joint venture between the current owners and a New York-based private equity fund — plan to turn the property into a townhome community. The terms of the sale weren’t immediately disclosed. The Passavia family, which has owned the club for more nearly 50 years, had planned to redevelop it 80 townhomes about a decade ago. The project never materialized, but the family got a special permit to change the land’s zoning to multifamily. That permit, which allows for up to 10 units per acre, was renewed every year since the family procured it. [LIBN]

Leasing activity slows in Suffolk and Nassau office markets in Q3, report finds
Office leasing activity was a bit sluggish in the the third quarter in Nassau and Suffolk counties, according to a CBRE report. The availability rate was 11.2 percent, up from 10.8 percent in the second quarter, but still down from the 12 percent posted one year ago. Still, the availability rate points to the relative strength of the office market, CBRE reported. Rents were up one percent year-over-year, going for $27.08 per square foot. “Though leasing was down during Q3, we saw an active quarter for renewals. The drop in the year-over-year availability rate and the addition of 15,000 private sector jobs are all signs of a healthy market,” said CBRE’s Tricia Shay. [CBRE]

Long Island home sales slow in September

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Rising mortgage rates and an increase in supply slowed down home sales on Long Island in September, according to LIBN. There were 2,361 homes contracted for sale, down from the 2,489 during the same period last year. That’s about a five percent drop. The drop from August is more dramatic. There were 3,099 pending home sales in August, making it about a 23.8 percent drop. Brokers said the downturn is because of weakening demand and climbing interest rates. Inventory is also higher. There were 12,725 homes listed for sale as of Oct. 8. That’s 5.2 percent more than the number of homes listed at the end of September 2017. [LIBN]

Developer closes $54.5M deal on Newsday’s Melville home
New Jersey-based Hartz Mountain Industries closed the $54.5 million deal to buy the Melville building that has been leased to Newsday from the Tribune Media Company, according to LIBN. Hartz Mountain plans to redevelop the 48.5-acre site into a warehousing and distribution complex. Newsday has operated at the site since 1979. The newspaper will move to new offices at 2 Corporate Center Drive and plans to lease 120,000 square feet on that building’s second and third floors. Three groups in CBRE represented Tribune Real Estate Holdings in the sale. They included Jeffrey Dunne, Steven Bardsley and Travis Langer of the company’s Institutional Properties Group; Philip Heilpern, Martin Lomazow and Matt Manoogian of CBRE’s Melville office; and Adam Seltzer’s Los Angeles office. [LIBN]

Estée Lauder decides to build $14.5M facility in Melville
The cosmetics giant Estée Lauder made it official: the firm will erect a $14.5 million engineering center in Melville, rather than other sites it had been weighing in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, Newsday reported. The company recently signed a 10-year lease for the facility at 65 Maxess Road, near its already sprawling campus. The details of the lease weren’t immediately released. The building, which was once a warehouse for the United States Postal Service, will house a 51,580-square-foot research center. The building will become operational by Dec. 31. Suffolk County officials have already offered the company $895,000 in tax breaks over 10 years. The project also received $2.2 million in state tax credits from the Empire State Development Corp. [Newsday]