Retail Roundup: Cabinet seller moving to make way for apartment project

An 83-year-old Long Island cabinet retailer is leaving its longtime home to help make room for a $100 million apartment development in Lindenhurst.

Lakeville Kitchen & Bath will relocate its headquarters and main showroom from Lindenhurst to a building it is buying and renovating at 140 Broadhollow Rd. (Route 110) in Farmingdale in December, said Bruce Wechsler, vice president of operations at Lakeville Industries Inc., which is the corporate name of the retailer.

The 17,000-square-foot Farmingdale property used to be occupied by the Conklin & Main furniture store, which recently closed.

That section of the Route 110 corridor, sometimes called “furniture alley” because of its slew of furniture stores, will provide better visibility for Lakeville than its current address, which is more of a destination location that people don’t visit “unless they’re told about it by someone,” Wechsler said.

Being among furniture stores will be an asset, too, he said.

“We’re really not competing that much with furniture. We’re focused on kitchen and bath, which most furniture stores are not. So, we think it’s complementary,” Wechsler said. Lakeville sells to homeowners and contractors.

Founded in 1935, the company has been headquartered at 100 S. Smith St. in Lindenhurst since 1955.

“When we began the search for a new primary location, one of our priorities was to stay within that general vicinity of Long Island that Lakeville has thrived in and been proud to call home for all these years,” Richard Sirlin, Lakeville’s president and owner, said in a statement.

Under his Lakeville Realty Co., Sirlin is selling the headquarters property and six other buildings that make up most of the city block off East Hoffman Avenue, between South Smith Street and Pennsylvania Avenue.

The properties will be sold to Setauket-based Tritec Real Estate Co., which will redevelop the approximately 7-acre site as an apartment complex with 260 market-rate units, said Christopher Kelly, spokesman for Tritec.

Construction on the transit-oriented development — the property is near the Lindenhurst Long Island Rail Road station — is expected to start in the first quarter of 2019, he said.

The Village of Lindenhurst has approved the site plan and zoning.

Lakeville Kitchen & Bath is a family-owned company that has a second store at 45 Southern Blvd. in Nesconset, which will remain at that site. The third generation of the Sirlin family runs the company, which employs about 35 people, Wechsler said.

“People tend to think of us as high-end, but we really run the whole spectrum, from more economy-minded kitchens to full custom,” he said.

Retail Roundup is a column about major retail news on Long Island — store openings, closings, expansions, acquisitions, etc. — that is published online and in the Monday paper. To read more of these columns, click here. If you have news to share, please send an email to Newsday reporter Tory N. Parrish at tory.parrish@newsday.com.