Architectural metal fabricator Coco buys Holtsville building for almost $4 million

If you look closely at the panels surrounding Merillon Avenue station in Garden City, you might catch a glimpse of the flowers and butterflies laser cut into the metal — work courtesy of Long Island metal work company Coco Architectural Grilles & Metalcraft.

The family business, headed by President James Coco Jr., has worked on Delta’s new terminal at LaGuardia Airport, Citi Field’s Hall of Fame plaques, and on glitzy homes in the Hamptons. But the company’s latest project is moving into its brand new building at 740 Blue Point Rd. in Holtsville, which it purchased for $3.95 million earlier this month, Coco said.

“It’s been a miracle to get us here,” Coco told Newsday on Thursday from the new Blue Point Road property. “I’m setting up, opening the door for the vendors, and just walking around thanking God that this happened.”

Coco is in the midst of moving his offices — laser cutter and all — from a smaller, roughly 13,200-square-foot space it leased at 173 and 175 Allen Blvd. in East Farmingdale to the 16,000-square-foot Holtsville building. And the company, which currently has 23 employees, is looking to hire two or three new workers to for its new, larger shop, Coco said.

A desire to own, not rent

Coco said he started looking for a new building in 2020, but when his landlord doubled his rent at the Allen Boulevard properties, to more than $18 per square foot in 2022, he decided Coco Metalcraft needed to move, Coco added.

“It kind of put the squeeze on us,” Coco said of the rent increase. But ultimately, Coco said the rent hike helped incentivize his team to “get out and acquire our own building.”

That rent hike wasn’t unique to just Coco Metalcraft. The average per square foot asking rent for industrial space on Long Island spiked during the COVID-19 pandemic as industrial users rushed to get property, though rents have moderated in the years since, said Max Omstrom, a managing director for brokerage JLL. In 2019, average rents on Long Island were $11.87 per square foot compared with $18.54 per square foot today, according to JLL.

“We've kind of plateaued since the pandemic, but we're still seeing continued strength, definitely from local tenants expanding on Long Island and buying properties on Long Island,” Omstrom said.

Staying on Long Island

In his search for a new building, Coco debated leaving Long Island for North Carolina, but a combination of hometown pride, a high-powered new building and tax benefits from the local Brookhaven Industrial Development Authority (IDA) kept him on the Island.

“We are pleased to help keep manufacturing on Long Island, and in particular in the Town of Brookhaven,” IDA Chairman Frederick C. Braun III said in a statement on Nov. 10. “It's nice to see a family business, especially one that wants to stay local, work with us.”

The IDA gave Coco Metalcraft a mortgage recording tax exemption of up to $33,585 and a sales and use tax exemption of up to $9,625 on materials and construction work on the new building, according to IDA documents. Plus, Coco Metalcraft also scored a 10-year agreement to make payments instead of property taxes, known as a payments in lieu of taxes (PILOT) program, according to the IDA and Coco.

The benefits were crucial for keeping Coco Metalcraft, and Coco the person, on Long Island, Coco said.

“There was a time we were entertaining leaving New York altogether. On one hand, you can get a much cheaper brand new building in incredible condition with very low property taxes,” in North Carolina, Coco said. But “we really wanted to fight to stay. This is where most of our family is.”

Coco’s new building, formerly the home of a perfume bottle packaging company, was also built to handle a higher electrical load, said Nicholas Romano, a broker with Metro Realty Services who represented the seller in the deal for the property. The building’s higher capacity for power made it a perfect fit for an industrial user like Coco, Romano said.