Trader Joe's closes on $118.6M purchase of former Computer Associates site in Islandia for distribution hub

Trader Joe’s has closed on its $118.6 million purchase of an Islandia parcel that was the former headquarters of Computer Associates — a sale that will help the company get groceries across Long Island easier and faster.

"It’s going to be a distribution center to support their grocery market regionally," said Thomas DeLuca, managing director in the Melville office of real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield, which represented the property seller.

A deed was recorded Wednesday showing a property sale from Islandia Property Owner LLC to Trader Joe’s East Inc. for $118.6 million, according to the Suffolk County Clerk’s Office.

Trader Joe’s plans to build a 921,318-square-foot distribution hub — split between three buildings — that will include warehouses, refrigeration and a commissary on the site, said Paul Amoruso, owner of Oxford & Simpson Realty Services in Jericho and one of the partners in Islandia Property Owner LLC.

Trader Joe’s new hub is needed to serve 13 stores in the New York metro area, he said.

"And I think they were having trouble serving the stores from their Pennsylvania distribution center ," he said.

The grocer has seven Long Island stores and is planning to open another, in Miller Place. Trader Joe’s, which is headquartered in Monrovia, California, did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday.

About 800 Trader Joe’s employees are expected to work at the distribution hub, Amoruso said.

The project calls for three buildings to be constructed on the 66-acre property: a 756,032 square-foot warehouse, a 125,433-square-foot freezer storage building with the option to expand it by an additional 33,592 square feet, and a 6,261-square-foot maintenance building, according to plans submitted to the Suffolk County Planning Commission on April 21. The commission approved the plans May 7.

Trader Joe’s already has started construction, Amoruso said.

The Islandia property is located along Expressway Drive North of the Long Island Expressway on the south side of Motor Parkway.

The campus had 3,000 CA employees at its peak in 2000.

In 2006, the property sold for $204.3 million.

The software giant, which was by then called CA Technologies, moved its headquarters to Manhattan in 2014.

In 2021, Islandia Property Owner held a loan on the property and negotiated a purchase at a steeply discounted price — $24.1 million — while reaching an agreement with the previous owner to avoid foreclosure proceedings, Newsday reported in 2023.

Islandia Property Owner demolished the 820,000-square-foot building and began marketing it to a buyer, Amoruso said.

Aside from Amoruso, Islandia Property Owner’s other member partners are investment firm Axonic Capital, real estate firm Onyx Equities and Taconic Capital Advisors, he said.

Newsday's James T. Madore contributed to this story.

By Tory N. Parrish

tory.parrish@newsday.comToryParrish1

Tory N. Parrish covers retail and small business for Newsday. She has worked at the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and Observer-Dispatch in Utica, N.Y.