B&H planning exit from Brooklyn Navy Yard

Affordable electronics purveyor B&H Foto and Electronics, one of the largest employers in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, is likely to make a move upstate when its lease expires in 2017.

B&H – which employs about 300 people at the Navy Yard — is poised to move close to a Hasidic community in Chestnut Ridge, N.Y., where it will build a larger facility for its warehouse and e-commerce operations, according to Rockland County government officials.

A B&H-associated entity recently bought a 158-acre plot in the area, members of the Rockland Economic Development Corp. told Crain’s. Public records seen by Crain’s show that B&H paid $9.3 million for the site.

B&H — one of the more visible Hasidic-owned companies in New York City — claims to be the largest non-chain photo and video equipment provider in the U.S.

A B&H spokesperson declined to confirm a move to Crain’s, saying only that it would consider alternative locations when its Navy Yard lease expires. The company has been constrained at its current location, according to Crain’s, due to Steiner Studios’ $85 million expansion at the site.  [Crain’s] – Hiten Samtani