Home Bay Trading plans move to Hauppauge

A Brooklyn-based supplier to independently owned dollar stores is eyeing a Suffolk County building because of soaring city rents, officials said.

Home Bay Trading Corp. plans to purchase 55 Kennedy Dr. in Hauppauge for a $9 million expansion that will boost the company’s space by 70 percent. It is now renting space in Brooklyn’s East Williamsburg neighborhood.

Home Bay sells school supplies, toys, home goods and holiday decorations to dollar stores primarily in New York City. The move to Suffolk will double the company’s sales, which now total $12 million per year, according to Sam Weng, the company’s owner and president.

Last month, the Suffolk County Industrial Development Agency offered Home Bay $794,600 in tax breaks, including $692,000 off property tax bills over 10 years, or a 25.5 percent reduction.

“We need a bigger warehouse and more trucks for deliveries, but it’s very difficult in Brooklyn,” Weng said through translator Janet Zhang. “There is no parking and rents have become very high.”

Home Bay is among a growing number of distribution companies from New York City that are looking to expand on Long Island as the city’s industrial areas become more residential. Condominiums and apartment buildings are replacing warehouses in Brooklyn and Queens.

In return for Suffolk’s help, Home Bay plans to add 16 jobs to its work force of 12 within two years. Employees will earn, on average, $28,012 per year, excluding benefits.

The company also considered moving to New Jersey or Connecticut.

Weng said he started Home Bay in 2006 after working as a sales and marketing director for a discount wholesaler. He and his wife came to the United States from China in the early 1990s and he first worked as a tailor and then owned a laundry.

“I started with a small warehouse and two vans for delivery,” he said, referring to Home Bay’s early years.