Jerry Wolkoff looks to add industrial property to Heartland Business Center

Gerald “Jerry” Wolkoff may not be worried about succession planning at his Edgewood-based G&M Realty, but the veteran Long Island developer is hoping to start construction in July on a 231,000-square-foot industrial building at his Heartland Business Center in Suffolk County, Long Island Business News reported. Wolkoff has applied for economic incentives from the Town of Islip Industrial Development Agency to help build the facility on a 20-acre parcel at 80 Wilshire Boulevard. If completed, the project would take up a 20-acre parcel within the 400-acre industrial park that Wolkoff broke ground on in 1985. Wolkoff has yet to secure any tenants for the proposed building, but he’s not worried about that either. “I find tenants because I give them a deal and a terrific product,” he told LIBN. Wolkoff is moving forward on developing the site at a time when Long Island’s vacancy rate for industrial space is 5.2 percent, while the average asking rent climbed to $11.05 per square foot, its highest mark in a decade, according to data from Cushman & Wakefield. The Islip IDA will hold a public hearing on the project — slated for completion in the summer of 2020 — on June 17. Meanwhile, Wolkoff is still pursuing other high-profile projects, such as Heartland Town Square, where he is sparring with Suffolk officials over a sewer connection agreement, and the controversial 5Pointz development in Long Island City. Wolkoff expects to finish two 5Pointz residential towers by next spring. [LIBN]