NYU Langone Health opening sites at former Sears, Lord & Taylor stores

NYU Langone Health is spending millions of dollars snapping up and revamping former department stores and other vacant retail spaces to expand its network on Long Island.

The Manhattan-based health care system is planning to open medical facilities at a former Lord & Taylor store in Manhasset, a former Sears in Garden City, a former Burlington store  in Patchogue and a shopping center in Middle Island. 

NYU Langone Health also will be opening two medical facilities in newly constructed buildings — at a mixed-use site in Commack and beside a retail building in Westhampton.

In fact, the health care system has about 700,000 square feet of new ambulatory care clinical projects under development in former retail, or mixed-use spaces, on Long Island, according to Andrew Rubin, senior vice president of clinical affairs and ambulatory care at NYU Langone Health.

NYU Langone Health has more than 300 locations in the New York metro region, including more than 100 on Long Island, and in Palm Beach County, Florida.

More health care providers are turning to retail spaces for expansion, and that is directly related to increased vacancies in traditional retail and the growth of e-commerce, said Thomas LaSalvia, a senior economist at Moody’s Analytics CRE, a Manhattan-based real estate information provider.

“But the growth of urgent care as an evolution in that industry can't be discounted. The timing has been good," he said.

The former retail spaces offer plentiful parking, which can be at a premium in western Nassau County, and good access to target demographics, said Philip M. Heilpern, senior vice president in the Melville office of real estate firm CBRE. 

He was part of the team that represented Toronto-based Hudson’s Bay Co., parent of the former Lord & Taylor chain, with leasing some of the vacant store buildings it owns on Long Island.

 Health care providers are usually creditworthy tenants that add stability to the vacant spaces, Heilpern said.

“Health systems are almost recession-proof,”  he said.

Here is the rundown for NYU Langone Health’s Long Island plans:

Garden City: The health care system will open an ambulatory care center this fall in a former Sears building it has leased, Rubin said. 

The four-level, 260,000-square-foot, free-standing building is at 1111 Franklin Ave.

Planned health services include radiology, women’s imaging, cardiology, pediatrics, obstetrics/gynecology, orthopedics and geriatrics.

Manhasset: NYU Langone Health will be taking over the entire 161,726-square-foot, three-level building at 1440 Northern Blvd that formerly housed a Lord & Taylor in a long-term lease, said Rubin.  No opening date has been announced. 

The facility will offer ambulatory surgery, endoscopy, a large physician office practice with about 75 physicians and 65 exam rooms, and a full-service imaging center, he said.

Middle Island: An existing medical practice will be relocated from Shoreham and expanded with a new office for cardiology and internal medicine in a shopping center at 1245 Middle Country Rd. in Middle Island, Rubin said.

The facility will open in about a year, he said. NYU Langone has leased 7,500 square feet of space in the shopping center, Strathmore Commons, that had been vacant for at least seven years except for seasonal pop-up shops, said Robert Monahan, property manager at Island Associates Real Estate, the Smithtown-based firm that owns the shopping center.

Patchogue: After off-price retailer Burlington relocated its store from 196 E. Main St. in 2021, NYU Langone bought the two-floor, 55,000-square-foot building for $7.2 million last summer.

The building is under design and construction for an ambulatory surgery center and multispecialty physician practice, and is expected to open in about three years, Rubin said.

Colorectal surgery, urology, gastroenterology and podiatry are some of the services that will be offered there, he said. 

Plans for the building’s renovations, which include adding  6 feet of height to the building, will go before the village of Patchogue planning board March 28, Mayor Paul V. Pontieri said.

New buildings

NYU Langone also has medical facilities planned near and beside retail tenants in newly constructed buildings: 

Commack: NYU Langone has leased most of a retail and office building under construction at 167 Veterans Memorial Hwy.

The 17,250-square foot facility will house primary care, endocrinology, orthopedics and urology services, and is expected to open in 2024, Rubin said.

Westhampton: The health care system plans to open a two-story, 6,000-square-foot facility for a multispecialty practice at 87-131 Sunset Ave. in the second quarter of 2024, Rubin said.

The building will be owned by Sunset West LLC, which is constructing the facility on vacant land adjacent to the landlord’s 25,000-square-foot retail building that holds CVS and other stores, said Sunset West’s leasing agent, Steve Politis, of Manhattan-based real estate firm Pan Brothers Associates.