Cardinali Bakery wants to turn Woodbury office into a bread factory

A growing bakery wants to convert a Woodbury office building into a $6 million bread factory.

Cardinali Bakery in Carle Place needs a second production facility to accommodate demand for its French, Italian, Napoli and Ciabatta breads, panini and hero sandwich breads, and dinner rolls. It also sells cookies, pastry and cakes.

With the shortage of industrial buildings on Long Island, Cardinali Bakery is hoping to do what others are considering: turn office space into production and warehouse space.

Owner Giuseppe A. Mauro said he plans to move the company's wholesale manufacturing to the office building at 220 Crossways Park West in Woodbury and then enlarge his retail store at 465 Westbury Ave. in Carle Place.

"We’re really stuck in the middle on both ends," he told a meeting of the Nassau County Industrial Development Agency last month, referring to Cardinali Bakery's wholesale and retail units. "We have nowhere to grow" in Carle Place unless the wholesale unit is moved elsewhere, he said.

The Woodbury property is 25,640 square feet and the Carle Place property is 16,000.

Nassau IDA chairman Richard Kessel said Cardinali Bakery’s plan to make bread in a space once filled with computer terminals and desks separated by cubicle partitions illustrates "the shortage" of industrial and warehouse space in the county. He said he expects to see more office conversions as employers adopt hybrid work schedules where employees work at home on some days and in the office on other days.

The Woodbury building is home to Spector Group architects, which constructed an office from what had been a warehouse in 2007. Spector’s projects include the U.S. federal courthouse in Central Islip and the Dealertrack headquarters in North Hills, which received IDA tax breaks.

The IDA agreed last month to begin negotiations for tax breaks with Cardinali Bakery.

The company is seeking a sales-tax exemption of up to $68,600 on the purchase of construction materials, equipment and supplies and up to $41,575 off the mortgage recording tax. It wants property-tax savings over 20 years; the current taxes are $156,100 a year, according to the application for IDA aid.

"Due to high property taxes [in Nassau County], the company cannot proceed with this project without the IDA’s assistance and would instead find a wholesale location in Suffolk County," the company’s real estate attorney Daniel P. Deegan told a meeting of the IDA board.

Cardinali Bakery would add 16 jobs to its payroll of 60 people. Salaries range from more than $100,000 per year for managers and supervisors to $40,000 for production workers and laborers, records show.

Cardinali Bakery was operated for more than 30 years by founder Frank Cardinali, who learned how to make bread in his native Genoa, Italy. He sold the Carle Place store and factory in 1993 to Mauro, a longtime employee who grew up in Naples, Italy. Mauro has since been joined in the business by his brother Agostino and son Domenico.

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated the Woodbury office building is vacant based on information from an application for IDA benefits.

By James T. Madore

james.madore@newsday.comJamesTMadore

James T. Madore writes about Long Island business news including the economy, development, and the relationship between government and business. He previously served as Albany bureau chief.