FAA moving regional headquarters from Queens to Carle Place

The FAA will move its regional administrative headquarters from Jamaica, Queens, to Carle Place sometime in 2025, taking up a floor-and-a-half of office space at 1 Old Country Rd., according to the agency and the building's leasing agent.

"All employees currently located in Queens will report to the new location," the Federal Aviation Administration told Newsday in an email this week.

There are currently 336 employees at the eastern office of the Regional Administrator in Jamaica. The FAA said it "is relocating its Eastern Region offices because the lease on the current location is expiring."

Kelly Koukou, a principal of the commercial real estate firm Lee & Associates, said the FAA plans to move into the building in 2025 on a 15-year lease. Lee & Associates represents the five-story building's owner, DBD Realty Group, based in Garden City.

Koukou said the building at 1 Old Country Rd. is 320,000 square feet, and the FAA will inhabit just over 74,000 square feet.

"They’re taking the entire fifth floor and half of the fourth floor," Koukou said.

The eastern office is one of nine nationwide that comprise the FAA's National Engagement and Regional Administration. The regional offices are "responsible for outreach initiatives, emergency transportation preparedness and response, and daily oversight and implementation of FAA programs and initiatives," according to the agency's website. The offices also focuses on runway safety, "aviation workforce development, finance, information technology, policy, human resources, and civil rights," the website said. 

The Carle Place building at one time had served as headquarters for 1-800-Flowers.com.

Its owners have spent $22 million on renovations to date and more are planned to accommodate the FAA's needs, Koukou said.

New offices and conference rooms within the space still need to be added. Renovations already completed, Koukou said, include a new parking deck that has 1,600 spaces, new windows, a new building facade, lobby and bathrooms and an HVAC system with virus filtration.

The building renovations were aided by economic incentives from the Nassau County Industrial Development Agency in 2020. Newsday has reported that owner DBD Realty Group got a sales-tax exemption of up to $672,750 on the purchase of construction materials and furnishings to modernize the property, up to $97,500 off the mortgage recording tax, and a 20-year reduction in property taxes that froze the tax rate for six years followed by increases of 1.81% per year.

With John Asbury

By Olivia Winslow

olivia.winslow@newsday.com@newsollie