LandTek eyes expansion after $10M deal for athletic facility builder

The LandTek Group, an Amityville company that has built athletic facilities for Hofstra, Stony Brook and Columbia universities as well as the New York Mets, Yankees and Red Bulls, is looking for further acquisitions after a $10 million expansion into Florida.

Mike Ryan, LandTek's president, chief executive, founder and majority owner, said Florida's position as a "sports mecca" whose weather offers year-round outdoor activities made it an attractive market.

"Many major league teams have facilities in Florida," he said. Meanwhile, colleges and universities "are competing for student athletes. What that means is updating facilities."

The LandTek Group closed its acquisition of Sports Turf One, a Boynton Beach sports-facilities builder, for about $10 million in October.

Ryan said growth is accelerating at the newly renamed LTG Sports Turf One, by tapping LandTek's size, including its ability to secure insurance bonds based on its deep financial resources.

"We've already booked more work in the first quarter of 2019 than they did in all of 2018," he said.

With the addition of its Florida unit, LandTek's primary markets are New York, Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland,  Virginia, West Virginia and Florida, Ryan said.

But he said LandTek, with 2018 revenue of about $150 million and about 400 employees, is looking at expansion in other fast-growing markets.

"We're in the process of looking at future acquisitions to grow geographically as well as to grow in size," Ryan said.

The 39-year-old company builds and maintains natural and synthetic turf athletic fields, but services can extend to construction of running tracks, bleachers, concession stands, press boxes or an entire stadium.

For instance, LandTek currently is building an approximately 80,000-square-foot, multipurpose field house at Stony Brook University.

An approximately $54 million international project awaiting approval calls for LandTek to build 12 soccer and cricket fields in Trinidad and Tobago.

A past marquee project was building the playing surface at Citi Field for the New York Mets. That project, completed in time for opening day in April 2009, required specialized drainage and underground heating systems.

Ryan said the company also has built "hundreds and hundreds" of athletic fields for schools on Long Island.    

By Ken Schachter

kenneth.schachter@newsday.comkschach

Ken Schachter covers corporate news, including technology and aerospace, and other business topics for Newsday. He has also worked at The Miami Herald and The Jerusalem Post.