Steel fabricator Integrated Structures in contract to buy vacant building in North Bellport for $4.8 million, expand operations

A North Bellport-based business that designs and manufactures structural elements that are installed in public projects across New York City and Long Island, is asking for property tax savings as the company plans to expand by buying a new building in the hamlet.

Integrated Structures on Pinehurst Drive, just north of Sunrise Highway, signed a contract in September to purchase a vacant 19,000-square-foot property at 17 Old Dock Rd. for $4.8 million, according to its application for tax incentives submitted to the Town of Brookhaven Industrial Development Agency. Company president and owner Francis Lee hopes to close on the sale, pending the IDA tax breaks, by early next year. 

Lee said the expansion will allow Integrated Structures to coat its steel beams with anti-rust paint in house, rather than shipping them to New Jersey for treatment before they are installed. The new facility will allow Integrated Structures, which also received tax breaks in 2021 for the purchase of its Pinehurst building, to complete its projects faster and take on more work, such as coating jobs for other companies, Lee said. 

"It will raise our capacity," Lee said, from “design all the way through the painting.” 

Integrated Structure has about 20 clients across the tristate area, Lee said. 

An attorney for Integrated Structures spoke about the application for tax incentives at a Brookhaven Industrial Development Agency meeting on Nov. 18, including a request for property tax savings over 10 years. Integrated Structures also asked for up to $50,250 in a mortgage recording tax exemption and up to $87,500 in sales tax exemptions, which can be used for upgrades on the new building, according to the application for IDA tax breaks. The Old Dock Road building previously held an environmental services company, according to Bloomberg. 

The IDA tax breaks are crucial for the company's expansion, Lee said. He had considered relocating his company to New Jersey to save costs but the Long Island location allows him to work quickly on projects in the New York metro area.

In return for the tax aid, Integrated Structures said it would add 11 workers to its 62-person staff by 2028, according to the application. The new jobs would pay an average of $80,000 per year, according to the application.

A public hearing on the tax breaks is scheduled for Dec. 3 at 1 p.m. at Town Hall in Farmingville, according to an IDA notice.

Laura Endres, an attorney representing the seller of the Old Dock Road building, Old Dock Road II LLC, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Steeling itself for an expansion

At the 20,000-square-foot Pinehurst Drive facility on Tuesday morning, a handful of workers monitored machines as they cut hundreds of pounds of steel that will make its way to Brooklyn to repair the aging Gowanus Expressway, Lee said.

The company also has repaired and replaced the roof beams in the tunnel holding the 149th Grand Concourse Subway Station in the Bronx and installed all of the structural steel in Elmont station on the Long Island Rail Road, including in the train platform, walkway and staircases, Lee said. Integrated Structures often works on quick-turnaround infrastructure repairs, Lee added.

If the company does expand, its potential purchase of a new building comes amid a tight market for industrial properties.

The vacancy rate for warehouse, distribution and manufacturing properties dropped slightly, to 4.9% in the third quarter of this year, according to a report from commercial real estate brokerage JLL. Industrial property remains in high demand on Long Island, partly due to the limited number of such buildings being constructed on the Island, said Leslie Lanne, a vice chairman at JLL.

"For local businesses buying their property, right now makes sense. It lets you lock occupancy costs, avoid rising rents, and capture future upside as the market tightens," Lanne said in an emailed statement to Newsday.

Tax incentives, too, have helped Integrated Structures limit rising costs in the past. The company received a 10-year property tax savings in 2021, which expires in 2032, according its 2021 agreement with the IDA. 

Those 2021 incentives "created a lot of jobs and growth," said Daniel Dornfeld, a partner at Uniondale-based law firm Forchelli Deegan Terrana LLP, which represents Integrated Structures. As a result, "the company has been able to grow to a point where it needs more space." Integrated Structures has added seven employees since 2021, according to its IDA applications.