Long Island’s largest public company is abandoning a large part of its office footprint.
Medical supply distributor Henry Schein is leaving its 180,000-square-foot office at 80 Baylis Road in Melville at the end of the year, Newsday reported. The space, internally referred to as Melville East, is the larger of the company’s two headquarters in the Suffolk County hamlet.
Schein leases the space from the We’re Group. It’s not clear when the lease is set to expire. The landlord declined The Real Deal’s request for comment.
Schein’s headquarters at 135 Duryea Road, known as Melville West, will remain. While the space is only 105,000 square feet, the company owns the property and has the option to make improvements.
Despite the large office closure, the company’s top executive doesn’t envision Schein bailing on Long Island.
“As we’ve said many times before, Long Island is — and will remain — our home,” CEO Stanley Bergman said in a memo to employees this week, according to Newsday.
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A spokesperson for Henry Schein told the publication that more than half of the company’s office employees in the country work remotely some or all of the time. The newspaper checked out the parking lot of Melville East late Thursday morning and found it barely 10 percent full.
The company will fulfill a commitment with the county to invest $15 million in its headquarters and maintain 1,223 jobs. In return, the Industrial Development Agency granted Schein $3.1 million in tax breaks.
“We will monitor this situation as it unfolds to ensure the company continues to meet its obligations to the county and remains a significant contributor to our local economy,” IDA executive director Anthony J. Catapano told Newsday.
— Holden Walter-Warner