Walmart, Weinstock Bros. Fully Lease Sanders Equities' 43,000-SF Hicksville Industrial Building Before Completion

HICKSVILLE, N.Y. — Sanders Equities has secured leases with Walmart and Weinstock Bros. for the entirety of its newly constructed 43,000-square-foot industrial building at 400 West John Street in Hicksville, N.Y., the Jericho-based real estate firm announced. The two tenants will occupy the building before the end of the year, with the deals representing a full pre-lease of the speculative warehouse development before construction is complete.

Walmart has leased approximately half of the column-free building for warehousing and distribution purposes, while Weinstock Bros. — a subsidiary of Würth Group, a Germany-based supplier of construction tools and equipment — has leased the remaining space, which will serve as its primary distribution center for the New York area, according to Jordan Sanders, president of Sanders Equities.

A Speculative Industrial Development on a Former Condo Site

The 400 West John Street project marks Sanders Equities' first ground-up industrial development. The company purchased the approximately 3-acre vacant parcel in 2015, at a time when the Town of Oyster Bay had already approved the site for residential condominiums. Sanders Equities opted instead to develop a speculative industrial building, a decision that Jordan Sanders said has since validated the firm's read on the Nassau County market.

"This project has exceeded our most optimistic projections, both in terms of our lease-up period and rental rates," Sanders said. "Based on our decades of experience with industrial space, we decided to build what we believed to be a product that was in short supply, and went through the development process in an increasingly tightening Nassau County market."

Sanders Equities already owns approximately 100,000 square feet of space on West John Street, giving the firm existing familiarity with the submarket. The company's broader Long Island portfolio totals more than 1 million square feet, consisting primarily of industrial properties.

Building Specs Designed for Modern Warehouse Demand

The new Hicksville warehouse features 30-foot clear ceilings, a column-free floor plan, and 12 loading docks and drive-ins — a configuration Sanders says was deliberately targeted to meet shifting tenant requirements.

"Together with an exterior conceived to satisfy all standards of corporate representation, the features of 400 West John Street demonstrate the need for smart warehouse design to address contemporary business needs," Jordan Sanders said.

Broker Representation

Barry Milberg of Treeline Real Estate represented Walmart in the lease transaction. Frank Frizalone and Thomas DeLuca of Cushman & Wakefield represented Würth Group. Sanders Equities was self-represented in both deals.

Retail-to-Industrial Conversion and Broader Growth Plans

The Hicksville lease-up comes as Sanders Equities moves forward with a separate conversion project nearby. The company plans to redevelop a 192,000-square-foot retail building currently occupied by a Century 21 department store at 1085 Old Country Road into a 153,000-square-foot industrial building with high-ceiling clearance and multiple loading docks.

The Old Country Road site has its own history of use changes. In the 1990s, Sanders Equities demolished several industrial buildings on the 7-acre property to develop Century 21's first Long Island location. The company is now reversing that conversion, returning the site to industrial use.

Century 21 is relocating to Roosevelt Field mall in Garden City, where it is building a 68,000-square-foot store in space previously occupied by Bloomingdale's Furniture, with an expected opening in spring 2021, according to earlier reporting by Long Island Business News.

Sanders Equities has also added Craig Dowd as vice president of acquisitions. Dowd previously served on Macy's real estate development team. Jordan Sanders said the company intends to continue investing on Long Island while extending its presence into additional markets.

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Sources: Sanders Equities — Walmart and Weinstock Lease New Hicksville Industrial Property; Long Island Business News, June 19, 2020.