In Lynbrook, a $1M offer to lure medical tenants

Some landlords offer lower rents to entice tenants. Others, longer leases. Paul Cooper and Louis Sheinker, principals of Lighthouse Real Estate Ventures, have gone further. They are offering grants up to $1 million to attract medical tenants to a building they own in Lynbrook.

Can things in the commercial real estate industry be that bad?

"At this point I would say the tenant has the upper hand," said Cooper.

He and Sheinker are hoping to fill up the building at 444 Merrick Rd. by the end of this year.

The grants are to be used to help the tenants build out their spaces. The landlord estimates the grants total $1 million. The space available is 35,000 square feet. If one medical practice takes the whole space, it will get the entire grant. But estimates are that medical practices typically take about 3,000 square feet.

"You want to make your building attractive for them to move into," Cooper said. "Making contributions to their build-outs helps."

The building is now 65 percent occupied by medical offices, said Adam Rochlin, president of Jericho-based The Rochlin Organization, the building's leasing agent.

To qualify for the $1-million grant, a medical practice must sign a 10-year lease and move in before the end of this year.

Desmond Ryan, executive director of the developers' group Association for a Better Long Island, said the offer is "going to the extreme" but reflects "the economic conditions we're facing in Nassau and Suffolk counties. This is basically putting a bounty on a space to attract tenants."